■  .^^MESONEAd  i  III 


i«i;;!ii:!i::;*i; 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Commodore  ^ron  ^cCandless 


The 

Workers  in  American  History 


By  JAMES  ONEAL 


THIRD  EDITION 

REVISED  and  ENLARGED 


1912 
PUBLISHED   BY 

THE  NATIONAL  RIP-SAW 
ST.  LOUIS,  MISSOURI 


TO  THE  WORKERS  OF  AMERICA 

who  are  now  besieged  by  the  Pow^ers 
that  Prey,  in  the  hope  that  this  small 
volume  w^ill  reveal  to  them  how  present 
tyrannies  came  to  be  and  how  they 
may  be  overthrown. 


COPYRIGHT        1912 
By    JAMES     ONEAL 


555 


CONTENTS 


Preface  Page 

I.     The  European  Background 15 

II.     Land  Conquests  in  America   23 

III.  White  Slavery  in  the  Colonies 45 

IV.  The  White  Slave  Trade 74 

V.     Rebellions  of  the  Poor  96 

VI.     General  Status  of  the  Workers 118 

VII.     Causes  of  the  American  Revolution 139 

VIII.     The    Constitutional   Convention,   A  Con- 
spiracy   164 

IX.     The  Period  of  Struggle 196 

X.     Conclusion 221 


PREFACE 


IN  sending  forth  this  revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  "The 
Workers  in  American  History,"  the  writer  believes  a  few 
words  of  explanation  here  will  not  be  out  of  place.  Two 
editions  have  been  sold  within  a  year,  and  during  this 
period  I  have  had  many  requests  for  a  cloth-bound  copy  of 
the  book.  Many  have  also  suggested  an  additional  chapter, 
devoted  largely  to  the  struggles  and  achievements  of  the 
working  people  during  the  first  half-century  of  the  republic. 
I  am  adopting  both  suggestions  in  this  edition,  and  readers 
of  the  first  and  second  editions  will  recognize  an  expansion 
of  each  chapter,  except  the  first,  a  citation  of  many  more 
authorities,  and  the  addition  of  another  chapter. 

My  viewpoint  may  be  expressed  in  the  words  of  William 
B.  Weeden,  in  his  "Economic  and  Social  History  of  New 
England"  (vol.  i,  p.  22).  "Our  generation,"  he  writes, 
"rather  avoids  the  narration  of  statecraft,  the  mere  descrip- 
tion of  combat  and  wars,  the  tortuous  evolution  of  dogmatic 
belief.  It  craves  the  actual  doings  of  individual  men  and 
women,  or  the  intimate  life  of  families  and  social  communi- 
ties. Individuals,  families  and  communities  forge  out  their 
lives  and  their  life  into  certain  material  forms  we  call 
economic.  The  man  forms  his  household ;  that  in  turn  forms 
the  state." 

Few  histories  today  give  the  reader  any  adequate  idea  of 
how  the  toilers  lived,  struggled  and  died  in  America.  The 
toiling  masses,  though  constituting  the  bulk  of  the  popula- 


8  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

tion,  are  hardly  mentioned ;  their  social  and  economic  life  are 
concealed,  while  a  few  "great  men"  are  paraded  before  the 
reader.  Timid  or  servile  scholarship  shrinks  at  revealing 
the  truth  and  contents  itself  with  devoting  pages  to  telling 
of  the  courtship  of  Miles  Standish,  John  Smith's  attach- 
ment for  Pocahontas,  or  giving  details  of  the  duel  between 
Aaron  Burr  and  Alexander  Hamilton.  These,  together  with 
spectacular  descriptions  of  battles,  accounts  of  intrigues, 
alliances  and  quarrels  of  politicians  and  public  men,  largely 
go  to  make  up  the  matter  that  the  reader  absorbs.  So  far  as 
the  actual  life  of  the  people  is  concerned,  how  the}'  lived, 
their  dress,  their  manners,  their  morals  and  economic  life, 
the  reader  is  left  in  the  dark.  The  result  is  a  distorted  con- 
ception of  history,  presenting  a  few  "great  men"  standing 
in  the  foreground  and  shaping  events  and  molding  society 
according  as  they  willed  it. 

However,  the  economic  life  of  the  people  is  now  being 
written  by  scores  of  writers  who  realize  that  the  unpleasant 
phases  of  American  history  have,  in  the  main,  been  passed 
over.  According  to  Alfred  M.  Heston,  in  his  interesting 
monograph,  "Slavery  and  Servitude  in  New  Jersey"  (p.  22), 
the  historian,  Bancroft,  admitted  to  James  Davie  Butler  that 
in  speaking  of  felons  among  the  settlers  of  America,  "he 
had  been  very  economical  in  dispensing  the  truths  he  had 
discovered."  In  other  words,  one  of  the  foremost  American 
historians  confesses  that  one  of  the  brutal  phases  of  working- 
class  life  in  the  colonies  was  not  given  a  candid  and  impar- 
tial treatment.  Writing  of  Massachusetts  historians,  Weeden 
also  complains  (vol.  11,  p.  550)  that  "it  has  been  too  much 
the  fashion  to  exalt  provincial  generations  into  a  sweet  com- 
pany of  frost-bitten  angels,  oppressed  and  a  little  warped 
out  of  their  skyward  tendencies." 


THE    WORKERS    IX    AMERICAN    HISTORY  9 

Finally,  there  is  the  example  of  Booker  T.  Washington, 
the  negro  educator,  who  in  1909  wrote  in  the  first  volume  of 
his  "Story  of  the  Negro"  (p.  108),  that  he  "never  had  the 
least  idea  until  I  began  to  investigate  the  subject  that  any 
human  being  except  the  Indian  and  negro  had  ever  been 
bought  and  sold,  and  in  other  respects  treated  as  property 
in  America."  Mr.  Washington  had  only  a  short  time  before 
picked  up  a  facsimile  of  an  old  Baltimore  newspaper,  the 
Maryland  Journal,  and  read  an  advertisement  regarding  a 
fugitive  Irish  indentured  servant,  and  learned  that  there 
were  other  slaves  in  the  American  colonies  besides  the  Indian 
and  negro.  His  historical  reading  had  never  conveyed  this 
important  information.  These  instances  indicate  that  sin- 
ister influences  have  played  their  part  in  suppressing  knowl- 
edge of  some  phases  of  American  social  and  economic  life, 
and  that  American  history  has  seldom  had  a  candid  and 
unbiased  treatment. 

Now  the  object  of  this  book  is  to  "place  in  the  hands  of 
workingmen,  and  those  who  are  in  sympathy  with  their 
ideals,  information  that  is  indispensable  for  a  proper  under- 
standing of  the  problems  of  today.  Some  of  the  statements 
made  in  the  following  pages  will  come  as  a  shock  to  those 
who  have  absorbed  the  current  views  of  American  history, 
and  yet  no  important  assertion  is  made  without  reference  to 
standard  authorities.  The  references  will  serve  as  a  guide 
to  those  who  would  like  to  consult  the  original  sources  or 
pursue  their  investigations  further.  Most  of  the  works 
quoted  may  be  found  in  any  fairly  well-equipped  public 
library. 

We  may  briefly  summarize  the  important  factors  or 
events  that  led  to  the  control  of  government  and  wealth 


10  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

productive  sources  by  a  small  class,  and  their  relation  to  the 
workers,  past  and  present,  as  follows: 

1.  The  discovery  of  America  followed  by  the  landing 
of  a  horde  of  adventurers  drawn  by  the  lure  of  gold. 

2.  The  confiscation  of  immense  tracts  of  land  by  for- 
eign princes  who  gave  them  to  favorites,  including  in  the 
grants  extensive  powers  of  rulership  over  these  domains. 

3.  Luring  beggared  workers  of  Europe  to  the  New 
World  with  deceptive  promises  and  selling  them  into  tem- 
porary slavery  on  their  arrival.  Kidnaping  whites  in  Eu- 
rope and  raiding  Africa  for  blacks  and  selling  both  in 
America. 

4.  Enactment  by  the  land  aristocracy  of  penal  codes 
and  fugitive  slave  laws  applying  to  black  and  white  slaves. 

5.  Withholding  political  privileges  from  all  those  not 
belonging  to  the  property-owning  classes. 

6.  Breaking  of  ties  binding  the  American  aristocracy  to 
their  brethren  of  the  Old  World  through  the  American 
Revolution. 

7.  The  Constitutional  Convention,  a  secret  conspira- 
tory  body  and  counter-revolution  against  poor  debtors,  rep- 
resenting a  usurping  minority  of  aristocrats,  who  secured 
by  force,  fraud  and  deception  a  strong  government  giving 
them  more  efficient  legislative,  police  and  military  power 
over  the  workers. 

8.  This  ruling  class  later  dividing  into  the  owners  of 
blacks  in  the  South  and  sweaters  of  whites  in  the  North, 
resulting  in  a  struggle  that  ended  by  extending  the  sway 
of  the  Northern  exploiters  to  the  gulf  and  to  both  seas. 

9.  The  rise  of  the  labor  movement  in  the  first  quar- 
ter of  the  nineteenth  century  gradually  extending  its  organ- 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  II 

ization  until  today  the  most  advanced  of  this  army  challenge 
the  masters  of  America  for  control  of  its  wealth-producing 
and  governing  powers. 

lo.  The  future  triumph  of  the  workers  by  conquering 
the  governing  and  wealth-producing  powers  and  managing 
them  for  the  common  good  of  all. 

The  last  stage  mentioned  is  given  a  very  brief  treatment 
in  the  last  chapter  as  it  is  more  familiar  to  the  readers  of 
social  and  economic  works,  and  to  give  it  adequate  consid- 
eration would  make  this  book  a  larger  one  than  the  author 
planned. 

The  writer  may  here  anticipate  some  criticisms  that 
may  be  made  regarding  what  is  said  of  Penn,  Washington, 
Hamilton,  Madison  and  other  "heroic"  figures  in  American 
history.  Those  who  profit  by  the  miserable  mismanage- 
ment of  society  today  use  the  "great  men"  of  the  past  as  a 
valuable  asset  in  appeals  for  support  of  their  rule.  The  dis- 
torted "history"  which  our  school  books  present  has  also 
given  us  some  historical  traditions  that  have  no  basis  in  fact. 
To  topple  both  over  and  present  these  men  and  these  tradi- 
tions in  their  true  perspective  is  a  service  in  behalf  of  the 
sweated  millions  of  today.  In  this  connection  we  may  here 
quote  what  Wendell  Phillips  said  of  Webster,  in  1853,  as  it 
applies  to  this  hero  worship  which  is  so  much  cultivated  by 
the  masters  who  rule: 

"We  seek  only  to  be  honest  men,  and  speak  the  same 
of  the  dead  as  of  the  living.  If  the  graves  that  hide  their 
bodies  could  swallow  also  the  evil  they  have  done  and  the 
example  they  leave,  we  might  enjoy  at  least  the  luxury  of 
forgetting  them.  But  the  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them, 
and  example  acquires  tenfold  authority  when  it  speaks 
from  the  grave.    How  shall  we  make  way  against  the  over- 


12  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

whelming  weight  of  some  colossal  reputation,  if  we  do  not 
turn  from  the  idolatrous  present,  and  appeal  to  the  human 
race?  saying  to  your  idols  of  today,  'Here  we  are  de- 
feated; but  we  will  write  our  judgment  with  the  iron  pen 
of  a  century  to  come,  and  it  shall  never  be  forgotten  that 
you  were  false  in  your  generation  to  the  claims  of  the 
slave.'  ....  We  warn  the  living  that  we  have  ter- 
rible memories,  and  that  their  sins  are  never  to  be  forgotten. 
We  will  gibbet  the  name  of  every  apostate  so  black  and 
high  that  his  children's  children  shall  blush  to  bear  it."^ 

Of  course,  we  do  not  hold  individuals  responsible  for 
social  or  economic  evils,  but  when  "great  men"  profit  by 
oppressive  institutions  or  by  their  acts  add  to  the  abuses 
and  grievances  of  the  workers,  we  protest  against  placing 
them  on  pedestals  to  be  worshiped  as  many  of  them  are. 
They  are  products  of  their  age  and  environment  and  natur- 
ally followed  courses  dictated  by  their  material  gains.  Their 
incomes  were  derived  from  holding  labor  in  subjection, 
whether  white  or  black,  and  establishing  laws  that  enabled 
them  to  enforce  their  class  domination  against  tlie  protests 
of  the  laborers. 

I  have  in  this  edition,  as  in  the  others,  allowed  competent 
authorities  to  speak  as  often  as  possible  in  the  following 
pages.  To  do  this  I  have  encountered  the  same  difficulty 
mentioned  in  the  smaller  work — how  to  avoid  making  the 
book  a  larger  one  than  I  send  out.  The  larger  book,  how- 
ever, enables  me  to  present  sufficient  material  to  indicate 
some  of  the  main  outlines  and  important  institutions  that 
form  the  background  of  civilization  in  America. 

The  writer  again  wishes  to  emphasize  that  he  makes  no 
pretense  at  literary  style  and  any  criticism  from  this  point 

iPhillips,   "Speeches,  Lectures  and  Addresses,"  Vol.  I.  pp.  114-115. 


TIIK    WORKERS    IX    AMERICAN    IIISTORV  I3 

of  view  will  be  lost  on  him.  His  observation  has  been  that 
many  writers  today  pen  beautiful  inanities  in  flowing  English 
that  charm  and  soothe  jaded  idlers  or  suspend  the  thinking 
faculties  of  workingmen.  Empty  platitudes  and  "blessed 
words"  are  their  stock  in  trade.  The  writer  has  no  wish  to 
indulge  in  them.  He  has  tried  to  deal  with  some  forgotten 
or  suppressed  facts  of  American  history,  and  if  what  he  has 
written  arms  thinking  workingmen  with  some  knowledge 
that  will  render  them  immune  to  the  arts  of  vulgar  poli- 
ticians, he  will  feel  repaid  for  the  labor  of  writing  this  small 
volume. 

Terre  Haute,  Indiana,   November,  1911.  JAMES  ONEAL. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I5 

Chapter  I 

The   European   Background 

To  understand  the  history  of  America  it  is  necessary 
to  review  briefly  the  main  events  in  Europe  which  had  a 
marked  influence  in  shaping  our  destiny  here.  Masses  of 
men  do  not  emigrate  to  another  continent  merely  for  the 
love  of  adventure,  especially  when  such  emigration  implies 
a  hazardous  sea  voyage  and  the  hardships  of  a  wilderness 
inhabited  by  savage  tribes.  Influences  more  effective  and 
less  romantic  brought  hordes  of  workingmen  to  people 
the  New  World ;  influences  that  make  one  of  the  blackest 
pages  in  history,  for  they  include  the  crucifixion  and  spolia- 
tion of  a  wealth-producing  class.  They  led  not  only  to  the 
forcible  exportation  of  pauperized  workers,  but  inaugurated 
a  slave  traffic  in  white  laborers  that  included  kidnaping  of 
men,  women  and  children  in  European  ports  and  selling 
them  into  temporary  slavery  in  every  American  colony. 

We  may  trace  the  beginning  of  this  process  with  the 
year  1348,  when  the  Black  Death  swept  over  Europe.  It  is 
estimated  that  fully  one-third  of  the  population  perished 
of  the  plague.  With  the  scarcity  of  laborers  wages  natur- 
ally began  to  rise.  They  rose  thirty  and  even  fifty  per  cent. 
Parliament,  under  the  control  of  the  ruling  class,  attempted 
to  interfere  with  the  "law  of  supply  and  demand."'  The 
famous  Statute  of  Laborers  provided  that  wages  should  be 
the  same  as  two  years  before  the  plague,  but  the  laborers 
succeeded  in  evading  the  law.  The  scarcity  of  laborers 
made  higher  wages  inevitable  and  the  employer  connived 


l6  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

with  the  laborer  to  violate  the  statutes  as  he  considered 
himself  fortunate  to  have  any  laborers  at  all.  Conditions 
for  the  workers  became  so  improved  that  this  period  came 
to  be  known,  in  England,  as  the  Golden  Age  of  Labor,  an 
age  when  the  highest  well-being  known  to  the  poor  was  en- 
joyed. The  old  chroniclers  frequently  refer  to  it  as  "Merrie 
England."  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  hours  worked 
and  the  purchasing  power  of  the  wages  received,  the  in- 
come of  these  workers  was  the  highest  ever  realized.  Pro- 
fessor Rogers  asserts  that  "The  artisan  who  is  demanding 
at  this  time  an  eight-hour  day  in  the  building  trades  is 
simply  striving  to  recover  what  his  ancestors  worked  by 
four  or  five  years  centuries  ago.''  The  highest  point 
reached  was  in  the  closing  years  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  sixteenth  century  brought  with  it  the  Reformation  and 
the  beginning  of  a  series  of  acts  that  robbed  the  laborers 
of  their  advantages  and  forcibly  transformed  them  into 
beggars  and  outcasts.^ 

The  Catholic  church  was  proprietor  of  a  great  part  of 
the  land  of  Great  Britain.  In  fact,  "The  Church  had 
become  the  largest  land  owner  in  all  Western  Christendom, 
nearly  one-third  of  all  the  land  in  Germany,  France  and 
England  belonging  to  her."-  The  suppression  of  the  mon- 
asteries, which  had  been  a  refuge  for  the  laborers  in  times 
of  distress,  threw  masses  of  them  on  the  market,  helpless 
and  dependent.  The  Reformation  brought  with  it  pillage 
and  spoliation  of  church  property.  The  estates  of  the 
church  were  given  away  to  favorites  of  the  court  or  sold 
to  speculators  who  drove  away  the  tenants.  Seizure  after 
seizure  of  lands  was  made.     It  was  the  beginning  of  an 


iSee  Rogers,    "Six  Centuries   of  Work  and  Wages." 
2l<'autsky,    "Communism    in    Central    Europe    in    the    Time    of    the 
Reformation,"   p.    30. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I7 

era  of  conquest  which  was  to  have  the  New  World  as  its 
greatest  prize.  In  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries Parhament  continued  the  process  of  pauperizing  the 
masses  by  enclosing  the  common  lands  which  had  been  at 
the  disposal  of  the  poor.  These  acts  simply  legalized  the 
thefts,  the  ruling  classes  merely  voting  to  themselves  what 
they  wanted. 

There  was  the  further  process  known  as  "the  clear- 
ing of  estates'  which  extended  into  the  nineteenth  century. 
Marx  gives  one  classic  example  where  the  Duchess 
of  Sutherland,  in  the  tirst  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, with  the  aid  of  British  soldiers,  rooted  out  15,000 
people  and  took  possession  of  nearly  800,000  acres  of  land 
and  transformed  them  into  a  sheepwalk.  The  good  lady 
later  entertained  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  author  of  "Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,"  by  way  of  showing  her  sympathy  with  the 
abolition  movement  in  America ! 

This  driving  of  the  workers  off  the  land  to  wander 
as  vagabonds  on  the  highways  had  its  counterpart  in  other 
countries.  In  1452  "A  similar  though  less  influential  part 
was  played  in  many  districts  of  Bohemia  by  the  fishponds 
constructed  by  the  landlords.  If,  as  Thomas  More  said, 
the  sheep  ate  up  the  peasants  of  England,  those  of  Bohe- 
mia were  equally  devoured  by  carp."^ 

The  ruling  class,  having  reduced  the  workers  to  beg- 
gars and  outcasts,  began  the  bloody  legislation  on  which 
rests  many  of  the  fortunes  of  British  "gentlemen"  today. 
A  few  examples  from  English  history  will  suffice.  A  stat- 
ute of  Henry  VIII  in  1530  provided  that  beggars  old  and 
unable  to  work  should  receive  a  license.  Whipping  and 
imprisonment   were   provided    for   the   able-bodied.      They 

3lbid.   p.   77. 


16  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

were  to  be  "tied  to  the  cart-tail  and  whipped  till  the  blood 
streams  down  their  bodies,  then  to  swear  on  oath  to  go 
back  to  their  birth  place"  and  work.  The  oath  they  could 
not  keep  as  the  lands  were  confiscated  and  manufacture, 
then  in  its  infancy,  could  not  employ  them.  "For  the 
second  arrest  for  vagabondage  the  whipping  is  to  be  re- 
peated and  half  the  ear  sliced  off;  but  for  the  third  relapse 
the  offender  is  to  be  executed  as  a  hardened  criminal  and 
an  enemy  of  the  common  weal."  The  baptism  of  blood 
and  fire  continues,  for  a  statute  of  Edward  VT,  nineteen 
years  later  (1549)  gives  power  to  the  masters  to  enslave 
any  worker  whom  they  denounce  as  an  idler.  The  master 
may  force  him  to  any  work  with  whip  or  chains.  If  the 
worker  absents  himself  for  a  fortnight  he  is  to  be  branded 
on  the  forehead  with  a  letter  S  and  be  a  slave  for  life. 
The  master  can  sell  him  or  bequeath  him  to  others.  If 
the  slave  revolts  he  is  to  be  executed.  Anyone  can  take 
away  the  children  of  vagabonds  and  keep  them  as  appren- 
tices. Similar  laws  were  enacted  in  France,  Holland,  and 
the  Netherlands.  Organizations  of  laborers  to  improve  their 
conditions  were,  in  England,  outlawed  from  the  fourteenth 
century  to  1825.  The  break-up  of  Feudalism  and  the 
Reformation,  coming  in  the  name  of  "freedom  of  con- 
science," released  all  the  vilest  passions  of  the  dormant 
commercial  classes  who  started  their  career  of  conquest 
and  plunder  with  the  methods  briefly  outlined  above.  They 
brought  a  scourge  to  the  back  of  the  laborer.  The  gener- 
ation that  came  after  the  Golden  Age  was  a  landless,  pau- 
perized, vagabond  host  of  beggars,  crowding  the  highways 
of  England,  branded  with  irons  for  their  poverty  by  the 
class  that  had  reduced  them  to  want,  and  "Merrie  Eng- 
land" became  only  a  memory. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  ^9 

Luther  incarnated  the  interests  of  this  pitiless  ruHng 
class.  "He  resisted  every  attempt  of  the  lower  classes  to 
derive  material  benefit  from  the  Reformation,  by  favor- 
ing each  step  taken  by  the  Princes  in  this  direction.  They 
were  to  become  the  owners  of  the  Church  property,  not 
the  peasants.  'It  is  not  our  business  to  attack  the  mon- 
asteries,' he  writes  (1524),  'but  to  draw  hearts  away  from 
them.  When,  then,  churches  and  monasteries  are  lying 
deserted,  let  the  reigning  princes  do  with  them  what  they 
please.'  "^ 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  attack'  Protestantism  or  its 
opponent,  but  merely  to  show  that  the  "liberty"  the  former 
brought  into  the  world  was  not  for  the  workers.  Their 
liberty,  like  their  "salvation,"  was  relegated  to  the  "other 
world."  Luther's  crusade  was  the  championship  of  a  new 
ruling  class  that  wished  to  throw  off  the  old  feudal  restric- 
tions. It  stood  for  a  new  ruling  class  and  its  opponent  de- 
fended an  old  one.  "The  religious  reformation  of  the 
sixteenth  century  was  not  the  cause,  but  the  effect,  of  the 
social  reformation  that  followed  upon  the  shifting  of  the 
economic  center  from  the  manor  to  the  city.  And  that  was 
preceded  by  the  rise  of  navigation  and  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World  and  new  trade  routes,  which  indicate  the 
rise  of  manufacture."^ 

In  France  the  reduction  of  the  workers  to  beggary  is 
a  grim  record  of  horrors.  The  frightful  poverty  of  the 
peasants  and  laborers  reached  a  depth  perhaps  unknown 
to  any  other  country.  Taine  quotes  La  Bruyere  who  wrote 
in  1689:  "Certain  savage-looking  beings,  male  and  female, 
are  seen  in  the  country,  black,  livid,  and  sunburnt,  and 
belonging  to  the  soil  which  they  dig  and  grub  with  invin- 


4lbid,  p.  128. 

sDietzgen,   "Philosophical  Essays,"  p.  87. 


20  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

cible  stubbornness.  They  seem  capable  of  articulation, 
and,  when  they  stand  erect,  they  display  human  lineaments. 
They  are,  in  fact,  men.  They  retire  at  night  into  their 
dens  where  they  live  on  black  bread,  water  and  roots. 
They  .  .  .  should  not  be  in  want  of  the  bread  they 
have  planted."  Taine  adds:  "They  continue  in  want  of 
it  during  twenty-five  years  after  this  and  die  in  herds.  I 
estimate  that  in  171 5  more  than  one-third  of  the  popula- 
tion, six  millions,  perished  with  hunger  and  of  destitution."^ 

By  1727  many  live  on  the  grass  in  the  fields,  which 
provokes  St.  Simon  to  declare  that  "The  first  king  in  Eu- 
rope is  great  simply  by  being  a  king  of  beggars  of  all  con- 
ditions." Another  writer  in  1739  mentions  three  famine 
insurrections.  The  Bishop  of  Chartres  told  the  king  that 
"the  famine  and  the  mortality  were  such  that  men  ate 
grass  like  sheep  and  died  like  so  many  flies."  Two  years 
later  one  town  of  four  thousand  people  has  eighteen  hun- 
dred poor.  "The  clothes  of  the  poor  are  seized  and  the  last 
measure  of  flour,  the  latches  on  their  doors,"  etc."^ 

In  Germany  the  thirty  years'  war,  1618-48,  wrought 
terrible  havoc,  the  peasants  and  laborers  being  reduced 
to  conditions  of  suflfering  that  words  cannot  exaggerate. 
Whole  provinces  were  laid  waste  and  transformed  into 
deserts.  "Friend  could  not  be  distinguished  from  foe.  and 
men  would  wrest  from  their  starving  neighbors  a  crust 
of  bread.  It  has  been  recorded  that  not  even  human  flesh 
was  sacred,  that  the  gallows,  and  church-yards  were  put 
under  guard  to  protect  them  against  theft  by  desperate, 
famine-stricken  people.  Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  in  some 
instances  even  murder  and  cannibalism  were  resorted  to. 


aTalne,   "The  Ancient  Regime,"  p.   329. 
TIbid,   Book  V,   Chap.   I. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  21 

The  neighborhood  of  the  city  of  Worms  .  .  .  now  af- 
forded cover  for  a  group  of  beggars,  who  fell  upon  pas- 
sers-by and  devoured  their  bodies  for  sustenance."^ 

The  wars  waged  by  Louis  XIV  on  the  Rhenish  Pala- 
tinate, in  1674  and  1688,  devastated  that  beautiful  country 
to  such  an  extent  that  it  required  two  generations  to  re- 
store it  to  its  normal  condition.  Cities  and  villages  were 
burnt,  thousands  were  beggared,  and  lands  were  confis- 
cated by  the  French  king.  Famine  and  pestilence  were 
added  to  the  other  miseries  of  the  unfortunate  inhabit- 
ants. The  invasions  seemed  to  follow  a  settled  policy.  Tlie 
people  would  no  sooner  recover  from  one  than  another 
would  follow,  with  the  customary  pillage  of  crops  and 
thefts  of  property.  One  French  army  gave  seeds  to  the 
farmers  for  another  harvest  after  having  robbed  the  dis- 
trict.^ The  peasants,  filled  with  despair,  ceased  to  till  the 
soil  which  only  increased  the  general  wretchedness.  They 
were  saddled  with  heavy  taxes  "levied  to  support  an  ex- 
travagant court  that  hunted,  feasted  and  reveled  until 
bankruptcy  or  revolution  put  an  end  to  their  riotous  liv- 
ing."^" 

All  this  made  the  victims  an  easy  prey  to  the  emigra- 
tion agents  of  William  Penn  who  were  in  Germany  en- 
gaged in  an  enthusiastic  crusade  in  behalf  of  emigration 
to  Pennsylvania.  Penn  had  also  won  the  admiration  of 
Queen  Anne,  who  was  interested  in  his  colonization  plans 
so  that  "systematic  effort  was  made  to  induce  them  (the 
Germans)  to  come  to  England  in  order  to  be  shipped  to 
America.  Thus  in  the  years  1708  and  1709  more  than 
thirty  thousand  Germans  crossed  the  Channel,  and  were 


sFaust,  ''The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I,  p.  56. 
nibid,  p.   58. 
lolbid,   p.    59. 


22  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

soon  afterward  brought  in  English  ships  to  New  York  and 
the  Carolinas,  but,  above  all,  to  Pennsylvania."^^ 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  brief  survey  that  all  Europe 
was  undergoing  changes  that  transformed  the  peasants 
and  laborers  into  homeless  vagrants.  Crowding  the  high- 
ways of  every  country,  evicted  from  the  common  lands, 
their  numbers  constantly  increasing,  reduced  to  famine  in 
France,  cannibalism  in  Germany  and  starving  outcasts  in 
England,  they  turned  eager  eyes  toward  the  New  World. 
A  virgin  continent  awaited  them,  a  land  that  would  serve 
as  a  basis  for  winning  the  peace  and  comfort  which  they 
had  been  denied  at  home.  But  their  pleasant  dreams  were 
to  be  shattered.  They  did  not  know  or  suspect  that  the 
ruling  classes  would  even  coin  their  dreams  into  yellow 
gold,  or  that  their  wretched  plight  only  served  as  another 
means  of  further  enrichment  for  their  home  exploiters  and 
for  another  type  that  awaited  them  on  the  shores  of  the 
Atlantic  in  the  New  World.  These  victims  of  class  rule 
were  destined  to  form  the  basis  of  a  slave  trade  to  recu- 
perate the  broken  fortunes  of  a  host  of  adventurers  who 
carried  them  into  a  species  of  slavery  on  American  soil 
that  was,  in  some  respects,  as  galling  as  that  which  they 
left  behind.  The  character  of  this  white  slave  trade  and 
the  servitude  that  was  to  be  their  lot  will  be  described  in 
a  future  chapter  of  this  work. 


iiFiske,  "Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,"  Vol.  IT,  pp.  350-351. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  2^ 

Chapter   II 

Land  Conquests  in  America 


A  glamour  of  romance  has  grown  up  about  the  persons 
and  deeds  of  navigators  hke  Cohimbus,  so  that  today  they 
seem  to  tower  above  the  rest  of  humanity  in  courage,  endur- 
ance of  hardships  and  sacrifice  for  ideals.  They  are  regarded 
as  disinterested  pioneers  prompted  by  the  highest  motives 
and  inspired  with  the  lofty  desire  of  carrying  civilization  to 
barbarian  peoples.  Nothing  is  farther  from  the  truth  than 
this.  "It  is  but  a  survival  of  the  barbarian  past  to  regard 
great  historic  names,  not  only  as  brilliant  leaders,  but  also  as 
demigods,  though  such  opinions  are  still  prevalent  among 
many  learned  as  well  as  ignorant  ment.''^  Columbus  was 
only  one  of  a  number  of  navigators  who  were  seeking  a  new 
trade  route  to  India.  The  march  of  the  Mohammedan 
hordes  to  the  north  out  of  Asia  Minor  had  been  going  on  for 
more  than  two  centuries,  when  finally  in  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century  Constantinople  fell  into  their  hands  and 
blocked  the  trade  routes  to  India. 

Goods  from  the  East  had  for  centuries  reached  Europe 
by  one  of  the  three  general  routes  through  Asia.  The  most 
southern  was  a  sea  route,  except  for  its  last  few  stages, 
extending  from  China,  Japan  and  the  Malay  Archipelago  to 
the  Straits  of  Malacca.  Indian  and  Arabian  traders  met  the 
Chinese  there,  the  former  transporting  their  goods  and  trad- 
ing at  ports  along  the  Malabar  Coast  to  Ormuzin  in  the 

iDietzgen,   "Philosophical  Essays,"  p.   104. 


24  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Persian  Gulf.  One  line  extended  across  the  Arabian  Gulf 
to  the  Red  Sea,  where  merchandise  was  frequently  carried 
by  caravan  to  the  Nile  and  shipped  down  that  river  to  Cairo 
and  Alexandria. 

North  of  this  ran  another  route,  along  which  goods 
from  the  west  coast  of  India  reached  the  Persian  Gulf  and 
sailed  north,  touching  a  line  of  ports  along  the  coast.  These 
ports  in  turn  were  terminals  of  caravan  routes  from  the 
interior  of  Persia  and  Northern  India.  One  branch  ascended 
the  Tigris  to  Bagdad,  then  by  land  to  Tabriz,  then  westward 
to  the  Black  Sea  or  the  Mediterranean.  Another  branch 
crossed  the  desert  from  Bassorah  by  camels  to  ports  on  the 
Mediterranean. 

North  of  these  routes  w^as  still  another,  having  its 
source  in  the  provinces  of  China  and  extending  to  the  Cas- 
pian Sea.  This  route  joined  smaller  ones  running  north  from 
the  interior  of  India.  North  of  this  main  route  was  one  run- 
ning parallel  to  it  until  both  formed  a  junction  at  Yarkand, 
in  Turkestan. 

"Along  these  devious  and  dangerous  routes,  by  junks, 
by  strange  Oriental  craft,  by  river-boats,  by  caravans  of 
camels,  trains  of  mules,  in  wagons,  on  horses,  or  on  human 
shoulders,  the  products  of  the  East  were  brought  within 
reach  of  the  merchants  of  the  West."  The  streams  of  mer- 
chandise carried  along  these  routes  to  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Black  Sea  were  met  by  Italians  from 
Pisa,  Venice,  or  Genoa ;  Spaniards  from  Barcelona  and 
Valencia,  and  others  from  Narbonne,  Marseilles  and  Montpe- 
lier.  The  Germans  crossed  the  Alps  and  took  back  with 
them  goods  for  Germany,  France  and  the  cities  of  the 
Netherlands,  while  the  merchants  of  the  Hanseatic  League 
carried  supplies  to  England  and  the  Baltic  countries. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  25 

This  traffic  reached  back  for  centuries  and  over  these 
mediaeval  trade-routes  were  shipped  the  luxuries  of  the 
East  to  the  ruling  classes  of  the  West.  These  luxuries  con- 
sisted of  spices,  drugs,  dyes,  perfumes,  precious  stones,  silks, 
rugs,  metal  goods  and  fabrics.  It  was  "the  most  extensive, 
and  the  most  lucrative  trade  known  to  Europe." 

About  1300  these  routes  began  to  be  disturbed  by  the 
rise  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  in  the  interior  of  Asia  Minor. 
Within  two  centuries  they  conquered  the  countries  on  the 
eastern  and  southern  borders  of  the  Mediterranean,  those 
clustering  around  the  Black  and  Aegean  Seas.  The  ports 
of  northern  Egypt,  of  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  and  those  of  the 
Black  and  Aegean  Seas  were  controlled  by  the  fierce 
Mohammedans  and  the  ancient  trade-routes  from  East  to 
West  were  effectually  blocked.  The  Turks  "added  to  the 
Moslem  contempt  for  the  Christian  the  warrior's  contempt 
for  the  mere  merchant."  Trade  and  culture  had  little  attrac- 
tion for  them.  With  the  fall  of  Constantinople  in  1453  the 
transport  of  luxuries  over  the  old  routes  was  practically  at 
an  end.  The  demand  for  these  goods  in  European  markets 
could  no  longer  be  satisfied  in  the  old  way,  and  this  provided 
the  incentive  for  the  eager  search  for  new  trade-routes  to 
the  Indies.^ 

The  merchant  traders  had  to  seek  new  routes  for  their 
merchandise,  and  it  was  while  seeking  a  westward  route  that 
Columbus  made  his  discovery.  So  the  lure  of  profits,  not 
the  love  of  adventure,  was  the  primal  cause  of  the  navigators 
venturing  out  into  unknown  seas. 

Events  that  followed  the  landing  of  the  white  man  on 
the  American  continent  also  confirm  this  view.    The  era  of 

liSee  Cheyney,  "The  European  Background  of  American  History," 
Chap.  II,  for  maps  of  these  trade  routes  and  a  general  discussion  of 
the  subject. 


26  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

colonization  is  an  era  of  conquest,  pillage,  enslavement  and 
robbery,  the  victims  being  the  Indians  and  the  great  mass 
of  pauperized  workers  crowding  European  shores.  Colum- 
bus himself  bears  testimony  to  the  sordid  motives  that 
guided  his  policies  in  the  New  World.  Writing  of  the  natives 
of  one  of  the  Bahama  group  of  islands  he  informs  the  king 
that  "Their  conversation  is  the  sweetest  imaginable;  their 
faces  always  smiling;  and  so  gentle  and  so  affectionate  are 
they  that  I  swear  to  your  highness  there  is  not  a  better  people 
in  the  world."^  Yet  in  his  memorial  of  the  second  voyage 
to  the  Indies,  dated  January  30,  1494,  and  addressed  to  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella,  Columbus  called  attention  to  the  pros- 
pects for  gold  in  the  island  and  to  the  Indians  as  a  good 
source  of  slave  labor.  He  asks  for  "cattle,  provisions  and 
other  articles"  which  may  be  "sold  at  moderate  prices  for 
account  of  the  bearers;  and  the  latter  might  be  paid  with 
slaves,  taken  from  among  the  Caribbees,  who  are  a  wild  people 
fit  for  any  work,  .  .  .  who  will  be  better  than  any 
other  kind  of  slaves."*  The  advice  did  not  fall  on  deaf  ears. 
Commencing  in  1509  "the  Spaniards  almost  depopulated  the 
islands;  40,000  of  these  innocent  aborigines  were  carried 
away  to  a  wretched  death  in  the  mines  of  Cuba.""  What 
glorious  work  for  a  "Christian  navigator"  whose  virtues  are 
sung  in  every  schoolroom  in  America ! 

However,  in  colonizing  new  countries,  a  ruling  class  is 
face  to  face  with  a  problem  that  forces  this  conquest  of  bar- 
barous peoples.  The  capitalist  system  can  only  gain  a  foot- 
hold in  any  new  country  by  compulsory  labor  of  one  form  or 
another.  In  the  home  countries  the  ruling  classes  are  in 
possession  of  institutions  based  on  thousands  of  years  of 


SThwaites,   "The  Colonies,"  p.  239. 
401d  South  Leaflets,  No.  71. 
5Thwaites.   "The  Colonies,"  p.  239. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  2^ 

history.  Land  and  other  forms  of  production  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  ruHng  classes,  and  there  is  no  alternative  for 
the  workers  but  to  work  and  produce  surplus  incomes  for 
others.  Custom,  tradition,  the  schoolmaster  and  the  church 
have  in  the  meantime  played  their  part  in  making  these  work- 
ers resigned  to  their  fate,  either  as  one  that  is  the  decree  of 
an  all-wise  Providence,  or  of  natural  laws  which  to  oppose 
would  be  folly.  Their  fathers  had  been  poor,  law  and  religion 
sanctioned  it,  and  every  educational  agency  had  so  perverted 
their  perception  of  their  interests  that  they  not  only  accepted 
their  fate,  but  shed  their  blood  in  behalf  of  those  who  lived 
on  their  toil.  The  workers  were  conquered,  intellectually  and 
morally. 

But  in  new  countries  the  institutions  of  class  rule  are 
absent.  What  exists  is  a  virgin  island  or  continent  with 
natural  resources  awaiting  the  skill  of  men  to  transform 
them  into  the  forms  that  serve  the  wants  of  mankind.  The 
rivers  and  lakes,  forests  and  harbors,  fields  and  deposits 
lack  the  basic  character  of  civilization:  that  is,  they  are  not 
the  property  of  a  class.  Hence,  if  wealth  is  to  be  accumu- 
lated in  such  countries  the  possessor  thereof  must  acquire  it 
by  toil.  If  accumulation  through  ownership  is  to  be  realized 
— and  this  is  the  "ideal"  of  capitalist  society — the  land  must 
be  seized  and  thus,  by  abolishing  self-employment,  enforced 
labor  will  be  secured.  "Law  and  order,"  with  all  its  acces- 
sories, such  as  police,  judges,  armies,  etc.,  will  naturally  fol- 
low to  guard  the  conquest  against  the  protests  of  the  prop- 
ertyless.  This  has  been  the  historic  process  in  every  new 
country,  including  America. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  advance  agents  of 
the  merchant  fleecers  of  Europe,  like  Columbus,  facing  the 
alternative  of  either  working  themselves  or  enslaving  others, 


28  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

should  choose  the  latter  course.  Besides,  they  left  the  Old 
World  with  other  visions  than  a  life  of  hardship  and  wealth 
acquired  by  hazardous  toil.  "Most  of  them  were  adventur- 
ers, who  had  embarked  with  no  other  expectation  than  that 
of  getting  together  a  fortune  as  speedily  as  possible  in  the 
Golden  Indies.  .  .  .  From  the  first  moment  of  their 
landing  in  Hispaniola  they  indulged  the  most  wanton  license 
in  regard  to  the  unoffending  natives,  who  in  the  simplicity 
of  their  hearts  received  the  white  men  as  messengers  from 
heaven.  In  less  than  four  years  .  .  .  one-third  of  its 
population,  amounting  probably  to  several  hundred  thou- 
sands, were  sacrificed !  Such  were  the  melancholy  auspices 
under  which  the  intercourse  was  opened  between  the  civiHzed 
white  man  and  the  simple  natives  of  the  Western  world. '"^ 
The  adventurers'  thirst  for  gold  prompted  Winsor  to  char- 
acterize Columbus  as  "the  man  who  was  ambitious  to  be- 
come the  first  slave-driver  of  the  New  World."' 

Unless  the  worker  is  enslaved  or  the  masters  make  it 
difficult  for  him  to  have  access  to  natural  resources  he  will 
occupy  the  land,  which  costs  nothing,  rather  than  hire 
out  to  others  and  produce  a  surplus  for  them.  If  the  capi- 
talist could  export  all  his  institutions  to  the  colonies,  if  he 
could  call  into  existence  almost  over  night  private  possession 
of  resources  and  have  police  and  military  power  to  enforce 
obedience,  he  could  start  with  what  he  calls  "free  labor" — 
that  is,  labor  dependent  on  him  in  the  beginning.  This  being 
impossible,  all  the  twaddle  about  "free  labor,"  which  his  intel- 
lectual police  chant,  is  abandoned  and  the  land  is  forcibly 
taken  and  slavery  is  introduced.  These  economic  difficulties 
that  faced  the  merchant  adventurers  in  colonizing  the  New 


ePrescott,   "Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  Vol.  II,  Chap.  XII. 
"Winsor,   "Life  of  Columbus,"   Chap.   XII. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  29 

World,  started  them  on  their  career  of  plunder.  "The  dis- 
covery of  gold  and  silver  in  America,  the  extirpation, 
enslavement,  and  entombment  in  mines  of  the  aboriginal 
population,  the  beginning  of  the  conquest  and  looting  of  the 
East  Indies,  the  turning  of  Africa  into  a  warren  for  the  com- 
mercial hunting  of  blackskins,  signalized  the  rosy  dawn  of 
the  era  of  capitalist  production."^ 

The  rulers  of  the  Old  World  solved  the  question  of  con- 
quering the  New  and  securing  slave  labor  in  a  characteristic 
fashion.  They  simply  granted  great  tracts  of  land  to  broken- 
down  court  favorites  and  adventurers,  transported  their  help- 
less paupers  as  slaves  to  America,  and  early  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  began  to  raid  Africa,  transforming  that 
country  into  a  bloody  shambles  to  secure  further  supplies  of 
slave  labor.  We  will  notice  the  land  policy  first.  It  was  easy 
to  deprive  the  workers  of  the  soil  and  make  them  dependent 
by  giving  the  land  outright  to  chartered  companies  of  specu- 
lators. The  charters  usually  gave  exclusive  powers  of  sov- 
ereignty over  the  domains  within  the  royal  grants,  and 
rendered  workmen  dependent  vassals.  Most  of  the  colonies 
were  settled  by  these  chartered  monopolies.  Just  as  the 
English  ruling  class  confiscated  the  common  lands  and 
enclosed  vast  estates  and  transformed  the  laborers  into  vaga- 
bonds, so  the  land  was  taken  from  beneath  the  feet  of  the 
workers  here.  Many  of  the  fortunes  of  settlement  times 
came  from  these  monopolies.  The  first  charter  of  Virginia, 
granted  by  King  James  in  1606,  may  be  cited  as  an  example 
of  the  exclusive  powers  and  privileges  given  to  these  adven- 
turers. 

This  grant  included  an  extensive  domain  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  for  over  two  hundred  miles  and  inland  one 


sMarx,  "Capital,"  Vol.  I,  p.  479,  Humbolt  Edition. 


30  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

hundred  miles,  as  well  as  the  islands  within  one  hundred 
miles  of  the  coast.  The  grant  provided  that  the  adven- 
turers should  have  "all  the  lands,  woods,  soil,  grounds, 
havens,  ports,  rivers,  mines,  marshes,  waters,  fishings,  com- 
modities, and  hereditaments  whatsoever."  It  further  pro- 
vided that  no  others  would  be  permitted  "to  plant  or  inhabit 
behind,  or  on  the  back  side  of  them,  toward  the  main  land, 
without  the  express  license  or  consent  of  the  Council  of  that 
Colony."  They  are  granted  the  right  to  fortify  their  terri- 
tory ;  to  resist  and  expel  on  sea  or  land  any  person  or  persons 
who  attempt  to  inhabit  their  domains  or  to  annoy  them  in 
any  way.  They  are  empowered  to  confiscate  any  person  or 
persons,  ship  or  ships,  vessels,  goods  and  other  furniture, 
which  shall  be  found  trading  or  trafficking  in  any  harbor, 
creek  or  place  within  the  limits  of  the  plantation  until  they 
pay  two  and  a  half  upon  every  hundred  of  anything  by  them 
trafficked,  bought  or  sold.  The  loot  realized  from  this  legal- 
ized piracy  went  to  the  adventurers  for  the  first  twenty-one 
years ;  after  that  they  sent  it  to  the  king.  They  were  also 
exempted  from  paying  any  duties  levied  by  the  home  govern- 
ment.® Corporate  privileges  more  sweeping  than  these  can 
scarcely  be  imagined. 

The  empire  of  these  favorites  extended  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Hudson  river  to  the  southern  boundary  of  North 
Carolina.  John  Smith  catalogues  those  going  to  Virginia  as 
"poor  gentlemen,  tradesmen,  serving-men,  and  libertines." 
The  workers,  of  course,  were  not  included  in  the  grant  of 
privileges,  as  they  invariably  came  as  bond  slaves  of  the 
"idle  and  dissolute  adventurers,  attracted  solely  by  the  hope 
of  speedy  fortune."^"    These  had  no  intention  of  staying  in 


nBryce.    "The   American    Commonwealth,"    Abridged    Edition,    Ap- 
pendix  I. 

loLodge,  "History  of  the  English  Colonies  in  America,"  p.  66. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  3I 

the  New  World  and  share  in  the  task  of  clearing  the  wil- 
derness and  making  civilization  possible.  They  left  their 
wives  and  children  at  home  in  the  expectation  of  returning 
soon  with  sufficient  wealth  to  live  a  life  of  ease.  The  com- 
pany was  simply  a  commercial  corporation,  the  main  object 
of  its  existence  being  to  swell  the  incomes  of  the  share- 
holders. Much  is  said  by  historians  regarding  the  religious 
ideals  which  they  assume  inspired  many  to  come  to  America. 
But  whatever  religious  motives  may  have  possessed  the  rul- 
ing classes  and  the  adventurers  it  is  certain  that  these  served 
as  a  convenient  shield  for  the  visions  of  plunder  that  dom- 
inated their  lives.  Thirteen  years  after  the  founding  of  the 
colony  a  Dutch  ship  sailed  into  Jamestown  and  sold  the  first 
black  slaves  to  Virginia  planters.  The  same  year,  1619,  young 
girls  were  shipped  from  England  and  sold  as  wives  in  James- 
town for  120  pounds  of  tobacco,  or  about  $80  each.  A  load 
of  convicts  also  came  and  were  sold  into  servitude.  In  1692 
an  incident  occurred  that  throws  some  light  on  the  holy 
aspirations  of  the  land  conquerors.  "When  a  delegation  from 
\''irginia  were  soliciting  a  charter  for  the  College  of  William 
and  Mary,  on  the  ground  that  a  higher  education  was  neces- 
sary as  a  step  towards  the  salvation  of  souls  by  the  clergy, 
he  (Attorney  General  Seymour)  blurted  out:  'Souls!  Damn 
your  souls !  grow  tobacco  !'  "^^ 

The  "adventurers"  who  "founded  Virginia"  never  saw 
the  American  coast.  They  remained  in  England  and  invested 
their  money  in  the  venture,  while  others  known  as  "plant- 
ers" went  as  colonists.  The  history  of  the  corporation  is 
one  of  swindle  and  plunder.  Many  of  the  planters  were 
defrauded  of  their  proceeds  of  the  venture.     Many  were  in- 


iiThwaites,   "The  Colonies,"  pp.   103-104. 


2^2  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ducecl  to  go  to  Virginia  from  England  by  deceptive  adver- 
tisements that  promised  rich  rewards,  which  were  never 
fulfilled.  A  large  number  became  mere  company  hirelings 
and  others  tenants.  After  1610,  one  governor  established  a 
military  system  by  which  workmen  were  driven  in  squads 
to  their  daily  tasks,  and  severely  punished  for  disobedience. 
"A  persistent  neglect  of  labor  was  to  be  punished  by  galley 
service  from  one  to  three  years.  Penal  servitude  was  also 
instituted;  for  'petty  offenses'  they  worked  'as  slaves  in 
irons  for  a  term  of  years.'  "  The  victims  claimed  that  there 
were  whippings,  hangings,  shootings  and  breaking  on  the 
wheel. 

The  administration  of  the  colony  resembled  a  prison 
regime.  One  authority  asserts  that  the  colonist  "was  kept  by 
force  in  the  colony,  and  could  have  no  communication  with 
his  friends  in  England.  His  letters  were  intercepted  by  the 
Company  and  could  be  destroyed  if  they  contained  anything 
to  the  Company's  discredit.  He  was  completely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  edicts  of  arbitrary  governors,  and  was  forced  to  accept 
whatever  abridgment  of  his  rights  and  contract  seemed  good 
to  the  Governor  and  the  Company.  His  true  position  was 
that  of  a  common  servant  working  in  the  interest  of  a  com- 
mercial company.  .  .  .  His  conduct  was  regulated  by 
corporal  punishment  or  more  extreme  measures.  He  could 
be  hired  out  by  the  Company  to  private  persons,  or  by  the 
Governor  for  his  personal  advantage."^^ 

So  Virginia,  based  on  conquest  and  tyranny,  gradually 
developed  into  a  class  aristocracy  that  survived  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1776,  an  aristocracy  composed  of  an  idle,  fox-chasing, 
gambling,  drinking,  ruling  class ;  served  by  black  and  white 


i2BalIagh,    "White    Servitude    in    the    Colony    of    Virginia,"    Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  Chap.  I. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  33 

servile  labor,  controlling  church  and  state,  establishing  cus- 
toms, forming  current  opinions  and  ruling  all  classes  below 
it;  a  society  that  had  little  to  command  our  admiration  and 
still  less  to  elicit  the  praise  of  historians. 

In  1 68 1  Charles  II  gave  William  Penn  a  proprietary 
charter  of  40,000  square  miles  in  America  to  liquidate  a  claim 
Penn's  father,  an  admiral  in  the  British  navy,  held  against 
the  government.  It  was  a  habit  in  those  days  for  British 
kings  to  pay  debts  or  extend  royal  favors  to  friends  by  exten- 
sive grants  of  land,  and  these  grants  sometimes  included  land 
already  given  to  other  Englishmen.  These  conflicting  grants 
frequently  caused  endless  quarreling  between  rival  claimants. 
It  was  an  easy  method  of  paying  debts  or  advancing  royal 
favorites.  It  cost  kings  nothing  and  only  placed  the  poor, 
who  emigrated  to  the  New  World,  into  the  hands  of  the  land 
kings.  Penn  proved  to  be  one  of  the  world's  greatest  land 
speculators  and  a  promoter  of  trade  in  white  slaves  on  a 
colossal  scale,  as  we  shall  see  in  another  chapter.  Although 
the  rule  of  Penn  was  mild  compared  with  the  Southern  col- 
onies, the  conditions  under  which  the  vagrant  poor  made 
the  voyage  to  the  colony  were  in  some  respects  more  inhu- 
man than  that  which  developed  with  the  black  slave  trade.^' 
In  1682  a  pamphlet,  the  authorship  of  which  is  ascribed 
to  Penn,  appeared.  This  was  followed  by  many  others,  all 
of  them  being  distributed  throughout  Europe,  but  especially 
in  Germany.  One  authority  passes  the  following  judgment 
on  the  first  document  mentioned:  "The  scheme  here  pro- 
posed is  to  induce  men  of  wealth  to  take  up  large  tracts  of 
land,  and  to  encourage  those  of  little  or  no  means  to  settle 
thereon  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich."'^*     The  pamphlet  was 

isSee  chapter  on  The  White  Slave  Trade. 

i4Karl  Frederick  Geiser,  "Redemptioners  and  Indentured  Servants 
In  Pennsylvania,"  p.  10. 

3 


34  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

carefully  written  and  the  terms  of  settlement  for  the  poor 
stated  in  language  that  would  appeal  to  them.  The  emigrant 
was  given  to  understand  that  here  was  a  rare  opportunity  to 
escape  the  oppression  of  the  Old  World  and  win  economic 
independence.  "The  dark  side  of  colonial  life — subduing  the 
forest,  the  constant  fear  of  savages,  the  want  of  facilities 
incident  to  a  sparse  population — was  not  represented  to  them 
in  the  mass  of  literature  which  advertised  the  new  colonies. 
For  unfavorable  reports  were  carefully  suppressed  by  those 
whose  interests  lay  in  the  settlement  and  growth  of  the  col- 
ony."^^ 

To  further  stimulate  immigration,  agents  were  sent 
abroad  to  induce  people  to  go  to  America.  These  were  often 
in  the  employ  of  ship  captains,  the  latter  promoting  the 
scheme  because  of  the  large  profits  in  it.  The  agents  were 
known  as  "Neulanders"  (Newlanders),  who  received  a  com- 
mission for  every  one  they  induced  to  make  the  voyage. 
They  resorted  to  many  tricks  and  devices  to  increase  their 
incomes.  They  dressed  well  and  paraded  gaudy  jewelry  to 
impress  their  victims  with  the  belief  that  gold  and  opulence 
were  easily  obtained  in  America.  Letters  entrusted  to  the 
Neulanders  to  friends  in  Europe  were  opened,  and  if  they 
contained  the  truth  as  to  conditions  in  the  colonies  they 
were  rewritten  by  the  sharks.  Abbe  Raynal,  writing  of  these 
infamous  practices,  said :  "Simple  men  seduced  by  these 
magnificent  promises  blindly  follow  these  infamous  brokers 
engaged  in  this  scandalous  commerce."^^ 

The  drain  on  the  population  of  Germany  became  large 
enough  to  rouse  the  resentment  of  the  ruling  classes  who 
feared  an  undersupply  of  laborers  and  a  rise  in  wages  as 
a  consequence.     Literature  giving  a  more  accurate  account 

islbid,  p.   12. 

leQuoted  by  Geiser,  p.  19. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  35 

of  conditions  in  America  was  spread  broadcast  and  laws 
passed  prohibiting  the  trade  of  the  emigration  agents.  A 
colonial  newspaper  in  1751  contained  the  following  an- 
nouncement: "The  Elector  Palatine  has  issued  a  com- 
mand that  no  Neulanders  are  to  be  tolerated  in  the  whole 
of  the  Palatinate ;  that  if  captured  they  shall  be  thrown  into 
prison."^''  But  mandates  of  princes  or  other  rulers  only 
succeeded  in  forcing  the  agents  to  work  in  secrecy,  and  lit- 
erature continued  to  be  circulated  by  them.  One  pamphlet 
states  that  cows  roam  on  excellent  pasturage  the  entire  year, 
honey  is  found  in  hollow  trees,  there  are  wild  turkeys  in 
flocks  of  five  hundred,  and  geese  in  two  hundred.  Buffaloes 
place  their  heads  through  cabin  windows,  bears  are  smaller 
and  herd  with  swine,  while  the  alligator  is  harmless  and  its 
lail  is  good  for  food  !^^  With  such  tricks  and  deceptions 
thousands  were  lured  to  the  colonies  and  embarked  on  a 
voyage  that  made  them  thank  their  God  the  moment  they 
were  free  of  the  white-slaver  ship  captains. 

New  Netherlands  (later  New  York)  was  perhaps  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  establishment  of  a  feudal  regime  in 
America,  and  remnants  of  the  feudal  privileges  granted  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century  survived  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  This  province,  like  Virginia,  became  a 
class  aristocracy,  though,  unlike  the  latter,  black  slaves  did 
not  play  any  large  part  in  its  history.  New  Netherlands 
constituted  the  section  of  land  that  the  ruling  class  of  Hol- 
land, through  its  States  General,  took  for  itself.  The  Dutch 
West  India  Company,  a  chartered  corporation  of  Holland, 
decided  in  1629  to  give  "any  member  of  the  company  found- 
ing a  colony  of  fifty  persons  the  right  to  an  estate  with  a 
river  frontage  of  sixteen  miles,  and  of  otherwise  indefinite 


iTFaust,  "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I,  p.  62. 
isibid,  p.  64. 


36  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

extent,  while  with  these  estates  went  every  sort  of  feudal 
right,  including  manorial  courts  and  the  privilege  of  trading 
within  the  dominions  of  the  company."^^  The  title  was  made 
perpetual  and  the  monopoly  of  trade  exclusive  except  that  in 
furs.  ...  In  these  grants  the  resources  of  wealth  and 
political  power  are  given  with  a  stroke  of  the  pen  to  the 
proprietors.  It  required  no  iron  collar  about  the  neck  of 
the  worker  to  emphasize  his  status  as  a  serf  under  these 
grants.  Out  of  these  little  land  kingdoms  sprang  a  powerful 
landed  class  with  mighty  estates  along  the  banks  of  the  Hud- 
son, surrounding  themselves  with  courts  in  imitation  of  the 
ruling  princes  of  the  Old  World. 

Six  years  later  still  greater  privileges  are  granted  to 
the  adventurers.  Anyone  establishing  a  colony  of  forty-eight 
adults  is  given  six  years  to  pay.  No  one  could  approach 
within  eight  miles  of  the  grant  without  the  proprietor's  con- 
sent. "He  and  he  only  was  the  court  with  summary  powers 
which  were  harshly  or  capriciously  exercised.  Not 
only  did  he  impose  sentence  for  violation  of  laws,  but  he, 
himself,  ordained  those  laws.  .  .  .  He  had  full  author- 
ity to  appoint  officers  and  magistrates  and  enact  laws.  And 
finally  he  had  the  power  of  policing  his  domain."^" 

The  only  redress  the  workers  on  these  domains  had  was 
to  appeal  to  the  New  Netherlands  Council,  but  the  adven- 
turers generally  succeeded  in  avoiding  this  by  binding  the 
settlers  before  starting  out  not  to  exercise  this  right.-^ 
It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  land  kings  "encased 
themselves  in  an  environment  of  pomp  and  awe.  Like  so 
many  petty  monarchs  each  had  his  distinct  flag  and  insignia ; 
each  fortified  his  domain  with  fortresses,  armed  with  cannon 


loLrodge,  "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  286. 

2oMyers,  "History  of  the  Great  American  Fortunes,"  Vol.  I,  p.  16. 

2iThwaites,  "The  Colonies,"  p.  199. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  37 

and  manned  by  his  paid  soldiery."--  Neither  are  we  sur- 
prised that  any  man.  or  woman  servant  could  not  leave  the 
master  if  the  latter  violated  the  terms  of  the  contract,  or 
that  the  master  "forced  his  tenants  to  sign  covenants  that 
they  should  trade  in  nothing  than  the  produce  of  the  manor ; 
that  they  should  trade  nowhere  else  but  at  his  store;  that 
they  should  grind  their  flour  at  his  mill,  and  buy  bread  at 
his  bakery,  lumber  at  his  sawmills  and  liquor  at  his  brew- 
ery."23 

This  work  of  seizing  the  land  as  fast  as  the  laborers 
could  be  shipped  to  America  placed  the  latter  as  securely  in 
the  grasp  of  a  colonial  ruling  class  as  the  evictions  from  the 
common  lands  in  Europe  did  the  workers  there.  In  addition 
to  the  confiscation  was  the  bond  slavery  of  thousands  en- 
forced by  the  voyage  to  the  colonies.  We  reserve  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  white  slavery  for  another  chapter.  It  remains 
for  us  to  briefly  consider  a  few  of  the  other  royal  grants 
that  established  broken  libertines,  adventurers,  and  specu- 
lators as  masters  over  the  workers. 

In  1629  Charles  I  granted  to  Lord  Baltimore  and  his 
heirs  the  present  state  of  Maryland,  and  a  large  part  of  what 
is  now  the  state  of  Delaware,  His  son  succeeded  to  his 
titles  on  his  death.  "The  proprietor  could  declare  war,  make 
peace,  appoint  all  officers,  including  judges,  rule  by  martial 
law,  pardon  criminals  and  confer  titles."^*  The  Maryland 
grant  was  another  "business  enterprise."  To  get  workers 
for  the  colony  the  purchase  of  land  was  not  encouraged  down 
to  1682.  Land  was  given  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
white  slaves  imported  into  the  colony  by  adventurers.    The 


22Myers,  p.  21. 

23ibid,  p.  46.    See  also  Thwaites,  p.  199,  and  Lodge,  "History  of  the 
English  Colonies,"  p.  327. 

24Thwaites,   "The  Colonies,"  p.  82. 


38  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

first  adventurers  were  allowed  2,000  acres  for  a  yearly  rent 
of  400  pounds  of  wheat  for  every  five  servants  imported, 
100  acres  for  less  than  five  servants  at  a  yearly  rent  of  20 
pounds  of  wheat,  and  fifty  acres  for  those  importing  children 
less  than  sixteen  years  of  age.  Those  who  came  later  received 
half  as  much  land  and  the  rent  was  increased  from  400  to 
600  pounds  of  wheat.  The  labor  of  white  slaves  formed  a 
lucrative  commerce  in  their  transportation  and  "regular  con- 
tractors began  to  import  them  to  sell  to  the  planters  and 
themselves  receive  the  certificates  for  the  lands. "^" 

Maryland  society  later  became  similar  to  Virginia, 
though  it  may  be  said  that  the  ruling  class  of  both  colonies 
did  not  make  any  pretensions  of  democracy  such  as  the 
Puritan  aristocracy  of  New  England  did.  In  Maryland 
there  was  a  savage  law  code  against  the  black  slaves,  while 
the  white  slaves  included  imported  convicts  who  worked  on 
the  roads  in  gangs,  loaded  with  irons,  and  were  frequently 
employed  in  building  houses  for  the  great  planters.  The 
other  white  slaves  were  kidnaped  in  Europe,  a  "business" 
which  we  will  discuss  later.  Those  who  made  the  voyage  to 
Maryland  of  their  own  accord  were  usually  the  victims  of 
the  emigration  agents,  who  falsified  the  contracts  and  added 
to  the  terms  of  servitude.^^ 

The  Maryland  clergy  aped  and  served  the  ruling  class 
with  a  degree  of  servility  perhaps  unequaled  in  any  other 
colony.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  them  to  be  found 
drunk  or  to  extort  marriage  fees  from  the  poor  and  refusing 
to  go  on  with  the  ceremony  until  their  demands  were 
granted.  They  "set  decency  and  public  opinion  at  defiance. 
They  hunted,  raced  horses,  drank,  gambled,  and  were  the 


25See  McCormac,   "White  Servitude  in  Maryland,"  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Studies,  Chap.  2. 

zeLodge,  "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  126. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  39 

boon  companions  of  the  wealthy  planters.  .  .  .  They 
became  a  by-word  in  the  other  colonies,  and  every  itinerant 
clergyman  who  was  a  low  fellow  and  a  disgrace  to  his  pro- 
fession passed  under  the  cant  name  of  a  'Maryland  par- 
son.' "'"  With  land  and  political  power  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  slave  masters  and  a  rotten  clergy  to  chant  their  praises, 
there  was  little  hope  for  the  workers  of  Maryland,  even  if 
large  numbers  of  them  were  not  in  a  species  of  slavery  yet 
to  be  discussed. 

In  1629  Charles  I  granted  North  Carolina  to  his  attor- 
ney general,  as  "the  province  of  Carolana,"  on  condition  that 
he  should  colonize  it  within  a  reasonable  time.  The  condi- 
tion was  not  complied  with,  but  settlers,  who  by  1663  had 
purchased  land  from  Indians,  were  robbed  by  Charles  II,  who 
gave  the  territory  to  eight  royal  favorites,  "gentlemen  who 
had  done  him  inestimable  services."  The  following  year  the 
speculators  secured  a  new  charter,  which  granted  to  them 
additional  land,  which  included  the  southern  half  of  what 
is  now  the  United  States  and  which  was  intended  to  extend 
as  far  west  as  the  Pacific.-*  This  colony  developed  the  most 
atrocious  type  of  slavery,  a  type  that  scarcely  had  a  redeem- 
ing feature.  The  cultivation  of  rice  and  indigo  in  the  swamp 
lands  of  the  colony  proved  deadly  to  white  men,  so  that 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  demand  for  black  slaves 
was  enormous.  By  1765  they  numbered  more  than  100,000. 
In  one  year  the  slave  would  produce  more  rice  than  sufficed 
to  pay  his  value.  In  other  words,  it  became  profitable  to 
work  the  slaves  to  death.  The  rich  planters  did  not  live  on 
the  plantations  in  the  swamps,  but  retired  to  Charleston, 
leaving  overseers  in  charge.    The  slaves  became  prematurely 


27Ibid,  p.   123. 
28lbid,  p.  125. 


40  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

old,  presenting  a  marked  contrast  to  the  slaves  of  the  other 
colonies.  In  Charleston  the  masters  lived  a  life  of  ease,  at- 
tended by  slaves,  drinking,  gambling,  and  attending  dinners, 
balls  and  concerts.  Their  lives  were  dissipated  and  drunk- 
enness in  that  climate  usually  brought  early  death.  "Their 
mortality  was  so  marked  that  the  women,  who  contented 
themselves  with  .  .  .  water  .  .  .  always  mar- 
ried two  or  three  times.""^ 

These  chartered  companies  of  rich  freebooters  played 
an  important  part  in  settling  North  America.  About  fifty 
or  sixt)'^  of  them  were  chartered  by  England,  Holland, 
France,  Denmark  and  Sweden,  all  of  them  being  inspired  by 
the  prospect  of  fortunes  to  be  secured  from  the  traffic.^"  In 
many  cases  they  held  almost  feudal  powers,  and  were  thinly 
disguised  plundering  expeditions,  operating  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  law.  They  were  "primarily  commercial  bodies  seek- 
ing dividends,  and  only  secondarily  colonization  societies 
sending  over  settlers."^^  When  Marx  said  that  capital  came 
into  the  world  "dripping  with  blood  and  dirt,  from  every 
pore,"  the  statement  was  as  true  of  its  origin  here  as  in 
Europe. 

The  examples  of  wholesale  confiscation  of  land  in 
America  suffice  to  show  the  methods  employed  to  establish 
an  aristocracy  of  wealth  and  to  render  poor  immigrants  from 
the  Old  World  dependent  on  the  land  kings.  The  first  forms 
of  capital,  instead  of  being  based  on  "thrift,"  "industry,"  and 
hard  work,  were  accumulated  through  theft,  piracy  and 
fraud.  The  former  theory  is  taught  in  the  schools  and  the 
latter  by  history.     The  schoolmasters  and  historians  have 


29lbid,  p.  185.    See  also  Thwaites,  "The  Colonies,"  p.  99. 
soSee  Cheyney,  "The  European  Background  of  American  History," 
Chap.  VII,  for  a  list  of  these  corporations. 

siLodge,   "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  165. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  4I 

employed  such  skill  in  telling  of  the  past  that  the  land  con- 
quests do  not  linger  even  as  a  memory  with  the  laborers 
today.  It  was  not  so  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  first  great  labor  movement  in  America,  beginning 
in  the  first  quarter  of  the  last  century,  had  not  forgotten  the 
methods  of  the  colonial  masters  in  enslaving  the  workers. 
For  example,  the  Workingmen's  Party,  in  New  York,  in 
1829,  declared  "that  the  first  appropriation  of  the  soil  by  the 
state  to  private  and  exclusive  possession  was  eminently  bar- 
barous and  unjust.  That  it  was  substantially  feudal  in  char- 
acter, inasmuch  as  those  who  received  enormous  and  unequal 
possessions  were  lords,  and  those  who  received  little  or  noth- 
ing were  vassals."^-  The  workers  of  today  have  forgotten 
this  historical  truth  which  their  fathers  proclaimed  nearly  a 
century  ago. 

The  confiscation  of  land  did  not  stop  with  the  original 
charter  grants.  It  was  continued  by  royal  governors  sent  to 
America  by  the  rulers  of  Europe.  As  fast  as  the  frontier 
was  pushed  westward,  land  was  given  by  governors  to  spec- 
ulators or  sold  to  them,  or  the  Indians  were  given  whiskey 
and  when  they  recovered  from  their  stupor  found  they  had 
been  traded  or  cheated  out  of  their  lands.  One  authority  says : 
"Broken-down  court  favorites  considered  an  appointment  to 
the  colonies  as  governor  a  means  of  retrieving  fallen  for- 
tunes, and  made  little  attempt  to  conceal  their  sordid  purpose. 
The  members  of  the  council  were  often  admitted  to  a  share 
of  the  spoils,  and  official  morality  was  much  of  the  time  in  a 
low  condition. "^^  Colonel  Fletcher,  one  governor  of  New 
York,  was  a  conspicuous  example  of  these  grafters.  Gov- 
ernor Bellomont,  in  1700,  one  of  the  few  honest  governors 
of  that  time,  repeatedly  wrote  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  in  Lon- 


32Myers,  "History  of  the  Great  American  Fortunes,"  Vol.  I,  p.  172. 
33Thwaites,   "Tlie  Colonies,"  p.  110. 


42  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

don  calling  attention  to  Fletcher's  acts.  Fletcher  "was  in 
league  with  the  pirates  who  infested  the  coast,  openly  sold 
them  licenses,  and  is  even  said  to  have  shared  their  spoils; 
while  at  the  same  time  he  plundered  the  revenue  and  connived 
at  smuggling  and  every  sort  of  illicit  trade.""*  He  also  gave 
great  tracts  of  land  away  for  trifling  sums.  In  1698  Bello- 
mont  charged  Fletcher  with  having  embraced  a  notorious 
pirate  who  had  returned  from  India  with  plunder;  that  he 
sold  protections  commonly  rated  at  $100  per  man ;  that  pro- 
tections were  publicly  offered  for  sale  at  these  rates,  and  that 
other  officials  shared  in  the  graft.^^ 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  land  speculat- 
ing companies  came  into  existence.  The  Ohio  company,  of 
which  George  Washington  became  a  prominent  member, 
was  organized  in  1749.  King  George  generously  gave 
these  speculators  500,000  acres,  on  which  they  were  to 
plant  one  hundred  families  and  maintain  a  fort.'^  In  1787, 
while  Washington  was  presiding  over  the  secret  constitu- 
tional convention  at  Philadelphia,  the  agent  of  the  company, 
Manasseh  Cutler,  a  preacher  (  !),  was  in  New  York  "steer- 
ing" through  Congress  what  McMaster  calls  "the  first  great 
'land  job'  of  the  republic."  This  steal  was  accomplished 
with  all  the  arts  of  the  professional  lobbyist,  many  members 
of  Congress  sharing  in  the  spoil.  Five  millions  of  acres  of 
land  were  disposed  of  at  two-thirds  of  a  dollar  per  acre,  but 
as  payments  were  made  in  depreciated  currency,  the  real 
price  was  not  far  from  eight  or  nine  cents  per  acre.^''  While 
Washington  was  serving  his  first  term  the  same  corporation, 

34Lodge,   "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  301. 

35Hart,  "American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"  Vol.  II,  pp. 
245-246. 

36Th-waites,   "The  Colonies,"  p.   283. 

37McMaster,  in  his  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States," 
Vol.  I,  pp.  507-513,  gives  a  very  interesting  account  of  the  entire  trans- 
action. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  43 

in  1792,  secured  another  concession  of  nearly  one  million 
acres,  paying  for  it  in  certificates  of  public  debt  and  army 
land  warrants  purchased  at  a  heavy  discount.'®  Enormous 
profits  were  made  by  the  speculators.  They  constituted  a 
strong  element  of  the  ruling  class  during  the  colonial  period 
and  long  after  the  Revolution.  We  shall  later  see  a  land 
and  navigation  corporation  initiating  a  movement  that 
resulted  in  the  meeting  of  a  constitutional  convention  behind 
closed  doors  at  Philadelphia. 

Land  grants  and  steals  in  behalf  of  adventurers  and 
speculators  have  continued  down  to  the  present  day.  It 
would  be  tiresome  to  review  the  different  methods  by  which 
wholesale  thefts  of  land  have  been  accomplished,  and  par- 
ticularly with  the  rise  of  railway  corporations.  That  these 
thefts  have  not  ceased  is  evident  from  the  Ballinger-Pinchot 
controversy  now^^  disturbing  the  dull  routine  of  Congress. 
Most  of  the  railway  companies  have  either  stolen  great  tracts 
of  land  or  had  their  agents  in  legislative  bodies  vote  land  to 
them.  The  same  is  true  of  land  speculators  and  other  groups 
of  "public  spirited"  pilferers. 

We  have  briefly  traced  the  causes  that  led  to  the  dis- 
covery and  settlement  of  America  and  found  them  to  lie  in 
the  commercial  interests  of  the  ruling  classes  of  Europe. 
The  rise  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  blocked  the  trade-routes 
over  which  had  flowed  for  centuries  the  costly  foods,  drugs, 
jewels  and  other  luxuries  that  gave  ease  and  comfort  to 
manor  lords,  princes,  kings,  and  others  of  the  ruling  classes. 
Then  came  the  feverish  search  for  new  routes  by  water, 
the  fact  that  the  earth  is  round  having  become  generally  ac- 
cepted among  educated  men  at  that  time.     The  discovery 


38Myers,  "History  of  the  Great  American  Fortunes,"  Vol.  II,  p.  16. 
39March,  1910. 


44  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

made  by  Columbus  followed  in  its  natural  order.  The  news 
of  a  vast  continent  to  the  West  naturally  conjured  dreams 
of  gold  and  conquest,  and  the  chartered  corporations, 
clothed  with  all  the  powers  of  government  and  sharing 
their  plunder  with  kings  and  emperors,  were  a  logical  se- 
quence of  the  preceding  events.*" 

Commerce  and  profits  are  the  guiding  motives  of  ruling 
classes  since  the  passing  of  feudal  society,  and  these  mo- 
tives guided  the  "statesmanship"  of  the  powerful  men  who 
landed  in  America,  representing,  as  they  did,  commercial 
corporations  financed  in  the  European  countries.  Enough 
has  been  said  to  show  that,  in  the  main,  since  the  white 
man  landed  on  American  shores,  the  natural  resources  of 
this  country  have  been  appropriated  by  ruling  classes  and 
their  kin  because  they  had  the  power  to  take  them.  Pos- 
sessing political  power  and  excluding  the  workers  from  the 
franchise,  it  was  easy  for  the  wealthy  classes  to  legalize 
their  methods  and  enforce  their  conquests  with  the  civil,  po- 
lice and  military  powers  which  control  of  government  gives. 
It  now  remains  for  us  to  consider  the  character  of  the  white 
servitude  established  by  the  colonial  rulers  and  the  "fathers" 
of  our  country. 


40We  have  quoted  a  number  of  authorities  to  vindicate  this  Judg- 
ment. The  following  will  also  be  interesting  to  the  reader:  "Of  South 
Carolina,  the  first  settlement  was  founded  by  the  proprietors,  and  re- 
sembled in  its  origin  an  investment  of  capital  by  a  company  of  land 
jobbers,  who  furnished  the  emigrants  with  the  means  of  embarking  for 
America,  established  on  its  shores  their  own  commercial  agent,  and 
undertook  for  themselves  the  management  of  all  commercial  trans- 
actions."—Bancroft,  "History  of  the  United  State,"  Vol.  11,  p.  166. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  45 

Chapter   III 

White  Slavery  in  the  Colonies 


Marx  has  said  that  "A  great  deal  of  capital,  which  ap- 
pears today  in  the  United  States  without  any  certificate 
of  birth,  was  yesterday,  in  England,  the  capitalized  blood 
of  children."^  The  same  holds  true  of  men  and  women  of 
other  countries  of  Europe.  By  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  beggared  population  of  England  became 
a  "problem"  to  the  ruling  class.  The  extension  of  the 
wool  trade  gave  added  stimulus  to  the  eviction  of  the 
poor  from  the  land  and  transforming  great  estates  of  fer- 
tile soil  into  sheep  pastures.  The  gulf  between  the  plun- 
derers and  their  victims  widened  and  the  desperate  pov- 
erty of  the  latter  increased  the  fear  of  labor  revolts.  "Col- 
onization was  thought  by  many  to  be  the  only  means  of 
obtaining  permanent  relief  from  the  pressing  political  and 
economic  dangers  of  pauperism."^  But  even  this  pauper- 
ism was  not  permitted  to  be  an  unprofitable  by-product  of 
land  thefts.  The  American  colonies  were  regarded  as  a 
convenient  dumping  ground  for  these  unfortunates,  so  that 
between  the  years  1661  and  1668  various  proposals  were 
made  to  the  king  and  council  to  constitute  an  office  for 
transporting  to  the  plantations  all  vagrants,  rogues  and  idle 
persons  that  could  give  no  account  of  themselves,  felons 
who  had  the  benefit  of  clergy,  and  such  as  were  convicted 


iMarx,  "Capital,"  p.  479.    Humbolt  Edition. 
2Thwaites,  "The  Colonies,"  p.  65. 


46  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

of  petty  larceny — such  persons  to  be  transported  to  the 
nearest  seaport  and  to  serve  four  years  if  over  twenty 
years  of  age,  and  seven  years  if  under  twenty.  It  was  poor 
wretches  Hke  these  in  England,  Germany  and  other  coun- 
tries who  were  seized  upon  to  provide  white  slave  labor 
for  the  colonies. 

This  cheap,  servile  labor  was  essential  to  the  society 
planted  by  the  corporations  in  the  New  World.  Trans- 
ported laborers  could  not  be  held  to  their  tasks  of  producing 
wealth  for  others  unless  prevented  by  force  from  producing 
for  themselves.  The  natural  resources  were  corporate  prop- 
erty before  the  workers  touched  the  Atlantic  Coast,  while 
their  beggared  condition  forced  them  to  sell  themselves  to 
pay  their  cost  of  transportation  across  the  seas. 

There  were  several  classes  of  these  slaves  and  perhaps 
the  best  general  description  of  their  servitude  is  given  by 
the  historian,  McMaster.  After  describing  the  status  of  the 
black  slaves  he  says : 

"One  step  above  these  slaves  were  the  convict  bond- 
servants, or  men  and  women  in  a  state  of  temporary  in- 
voluntary servitude.  These  people  were  either  political 
offenders  or  felon  convicts.  Those  guilty  of  political  of- 
fenses, as  the  Scots  taken  in  battle  in  1650,  the  prisoners 
captured  at  the  battle  of  Worcester  in  165 1.  Monmouth's 
men,  1685,  the  Scots  concerned  in  the  uprising  of  1678,  the 
Jacobins  of  1716,  the  Scots  who  went  out  in  1745,  were, 
of  course,  of  this  class  of  offenders ;  and  during  that  period, 
between  1650  and  1745,  as  many  as  four  thousand  are 
known  to  have  been  sent  over  to  this  country. 

"The  felons  formed  the  great  source  of  supply,  and 
had  been  sent  over  in  very  considerable  numbers  from 
the  earliest  days  of  colonization.     .      .      .     One  historian 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  47 

of  Maryland  declares  that  up  to  the  Revolution  twenty 
thousand  came  to  that  colony  and  half  of  them  after  1750. 
Another  authority  .  .  .  asserts  that  between  1715  and 
I775>  ten  thousand  felons  were  exported  from  the  Old 
Bailey  Prison  in  London. 

"But  the  indentured  servant  and  redemptioner  did  not 
cease  to  come  when  the  colonies  became  the  United  States. 
Speaking  generally,  the  indentured  servants  were  men, 
women  and  even  children,  who,  unable  to  pay  their  pas- 
sage, signed  a  contract  called  an  indenture^  before  leaving 
the  Old  World.  This  indenture  bound  the  owner  or  master 
of  the  ship  to  transport  them  to  America,  and  bound  the 
emigrant  after  arrival  in  America  to  serve  the  owner,  or 
their  assigns,  for  a  certain  number  of  years.  On  reaching 
port  the  owner  or  master,  whose  servants  they  then  became, 
sold  them  for  their  passage  to  the  highest  bidder,  or  for  zvhat 
he  could  get. 

"The  redemptioner,  on  the  other  hand,  was  an  immi- 
grant who  signed  no  indenture  before  embarking,  but  agreed 
with  the  shipping  merchant  that  after  reaching  America  he 
should  be  given  a  certain  time  (generally  a  month)  in 
which  to  find  somebody  to  redeem  him  by  paying  the 
passage  money,  or  freight,  as  it  was  called.  Should  he 
fail  to  find  a  redeemer  within  a  specified  time,  the  ship  cap- 
tain was  at  liberty  to  sell  him  to  the  highest  bidder.    .     .     . 

"When  a  ship  laden  with  one  to  three  hundred  such 
persons  arrived,  we  will  say  at  Philadelphia,  the  immigrants, 
arranged  in  a  long  line,  were  marched  at  once  to  a  magis- 
trate and  forced  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  or, 
later,  to  the  United  States,  and  then  marched  back  to  the 


3The  name  comes  from  the  practice  of  tearing  the  contract  into 
two  halves,  with  jagged  edges;  the  master  kept  one  and  the  slave 
the  other.  1  a    [ 


48  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ship  to  be  sold.     If    a    purchaser    was    not    forthcoming 
they   were   frequently   sold    to    speculators*^  who 
drove  them,  chained  together,  sometimes  through  the  coun- 
try, from  farm  to  farm,  in  search  of  a  purchaser. 

"The  contract  signed,  the  newcomer  became  in  the  eyes 
of  the  law  a  slave,  and  in  both  the  civil  and  criminal  code 
was  classed  with  negro  slaves  and  Indians.  None  could 
marry  without  consent  of  the  master  or  mistress  under  pen- 
alty of  an  addition  of  one  year's  service  to  the  time  set  forth 
in  the  indenture.  They  were  worked  hard,  were  dressed  in 
the  cast-off  clothes  of  their  owners,  and  might  he  flogged  as 
often  as  the  master  or  mistress  thought  necessary. 
Father,  mother  and  children  could  be  sold  to  different 
buyers."^ 

The  only  difference  between  these  white  slaves,  sold 
in  American  ports,  and  the  blacks  was  that  the  slavery  of 
the  whites  was  limited  and  the  blacks  were  slaves  for  life. 
The  white  slaves  were  sold  in  all  the  colonies,  though  New 
England's  supply  was  smaller  than  the  middle  and  southern 
colonies.  It  may  be  said  with  truth  that  both  black  and 
white  slaves  formed  the  basis  of  the  landed  aristocracy 
of  the  colonies  befdre  and  long  after  the  Revolution.  Yet 
this  fact  is  suppressed  by  most  historians  in  order  that 
historic  figures,  who  witnessed  the  auction  of  white  la- 
borers without  a  protest,  and  some  of  whom  were  inter- 
ested in  the  traffic,  might  be  glorified.     It  was  a  modified 


4These  dealers  in  white  slaves  were  known  as  "soul  drivers"  and 
were  cordially  hated  by  the  workers  throughout  the  colonies. 

sMcMaster,  "The  Acquisition  of  the  Political,  Social  and  Industrial 
Rights  of  Man  in  America,"  pp.  32-35.  This  book  is  a  scholarly  sum- 
mary of  the  economic,  social  and  political  status  of  the  workers  from 
the  Revolution  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  If  the  facts 
given  by  the  author  were  generally  known  by  workingmen  they  would 
revolutionize  the  popular  conception  of  American  history.  It  seems, 
therefore,  more  than  a  coincidence  that  the  book,  published  in  1903, 
has  been  limited  to  500  copies! 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  49 

form  of  chattel  slavery  and  admirably  served  the  purposes 
of  the  classes  who  confiscated  the  land  or  inherited  it  from 
those  who  did.  With  the  resources  of  life  in  their  hands 
and  whites  and  blacks  held  in  servitude,  the  ruling  classes 
had  all  the  advantages  that  the  masters  of  any  age  might 
wish. 

But  we  have  not  exhausted  our  review  of  the  life  of 
these  forgotten  white  slaves  in  quoting  McMaster's  excel- 
lent summary.  The  oldest  document  recognizing  the  exist- 
ence of  Harvard  college  is  a  pamphlet  entitled  "New 
England's  First  Fruits."  It  is  dated  "Boston,  Sept.  26, 
1642,"  and  gives  an  account  of  the  experience  and  needs  of 
the  settlers.  One  of  their  appeals  to  Englishmen  is  to  stir 
up  "some  well-minded  to  cloath  and  transport  over  poore 
children,  Boyes  and  Girles,  which  may  be  a  great  mercy  to 
their  bodies  and  soules."®  It  would  thus  seem  that  New 
England  "democracy"  was  alive  to  the  value  of  bond-labor. 
It  also  becam.e  the  fashion  to  place  paupers  up  at  public 
auction  in  Boston  and  other  New  England  towns  and  sell 
them  to  the  lowest  bidder  for  their  support.'  New  Jersey^ 
followed  this  simple  Puritan  plan  as  did  New  York,'*  where 
their  children  were  also  sold  as  apprentices.  New  England 
"democracy"  found  its  way  over  into  Pennsylvania  and 
blessed  the  workers  there  with  its  presence.  We  are  in- 
formed that  in  this  colony  "The  class  of  indentured  servants 
was  not  recruited  from  immigrants  alone.  The  courts  of 
this  period  (1684)  and  for  many  years  after,  frequently 
sentenced  freemen  to  be  sold  into  servitude  for  a  period  of 
years  in  order  to  liquidate  fines  or  other  debts.     .     .     .; 


eOld  South  Leaflets,  No.  51. 

TLodge,  "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  441. 

sibid,  p.  276. 

slbld,  p.  327. 


50  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

orphan  children  were  brought  to  the  court  to  be  'adjudged,' 
there  being  on  one  occasion,  in  the  Chester  county  court,  in 
1697,  thirty-three  zuhose  terms  of  service  were  fixed  by  the 
court:"^"  It  was  New  England  "democracy"  that  also  set 
the  fashion  in  punishing  offenders  with  whipping,  branding, 
cropping,  mutilation,  the  pillory  and  the  stocks. 

To  be  sure  that  "democracy"  was  securely  established 
in  Massachusetts  the  colonial  legislature,  in  1641,  adopted 
a  "Body  of  Liberties"  among  which  there  was  a  provision 
that  "There  shall  be  no  bond  slaverie  (  !)  Villinage  of  Cap- 
tivitie  amongst  us  unless  it  be  lawfull  captives  taken  in  just 
warres,  and  such  strangers  as  willingly  (  ! !)  selle  themselves 
or  are  sold  to  us."  To  clinch  the  "liberties"  the  poor  were 
enjoying  the  death  penalty  was  provided  for  any  who  con- 
spired or  attempted  rebellion  against  "our  frame  of  politic 
or  government  fundamentallie.""  It  would  certainly  be  a 
dull-witted  fellow  who  could  not  appreciate  these  "liber- 
ties." 

The  fact  that  white  servitude  was  not  as  general  in 
New  England  as  in  the  colonies  to  the  South,  does  not 
necessarily  mean  that  "free  labor"  was  allowed  to  reap  the 
reward  of  high  wages  that  usually  comes  of  a  scarcity  of 
labor.  The  Puritan  aristocracy  met  this  scarcity  by  iixitig 
wages  by  law.  As  early  as  1633  Massachusetts  Bay  colony 
adopted  a  statute  commanding  that  carpenters,  sawyers, 
masons,  bricklayers,  tilers,  joiners,  wheelwrights,  mowers 
and  other  workmen  were  not  to  receive  more  than  two 
shillings  per  day,  each  paying  his  own  board,  or  if  furnished 
with  living  they  might  receive  fourteen  pence  per  day.  The 
constable  and  two  others  associated  with  him  was  to  fix 


loGeiser,    "Redemptioners  and  Indentured  Servants  in  Pennsylva- 
nia," p.  28. 

iiTliwaites,  "The  Colonies,"  pp.  138-139. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  5I 

the  rates  of  pay  of  inferior  workmen  in  tlie  same  occupa- 
tions. Other  classes  of  workmen  also  had  their  wages  fixed 
by  law.  An  employer  who  paid  more  than  the  legal  rates, 
as  he  would  be  tempted  to  do  during  a  brisk  demand  for 
labor,  or  the  workman  who  accepted  wages  higher  than 
the  legal  rate,  were  both  subjected  to  penalties  for  violating 
the  law.  Lest  these  regulations  might  provoke  the  workers 
to  refuse  to  work  at  all  the  "virtues"  of  thrift  and  industry 
were  encouraged  by  providing  that  there  should  be  no  idle- 
ness, and  the  workman  who  indulged  in  this  peculiar  privi- 
lege of  the  aristocracy  was  subjected  to  a  penalty  fixed  by 
law. 

One  year  after  the  passage  of  this  act  there  was  an 
increase  in  the  demand  for  labor  and  the  clause  penalizing 
the  employers  for  paying  wages  higher  than  the  legal  rates 
was  repealed.  The  towns  were  then  authorized  to  appoint  a 
board  of  three  men  to  fix  wages  when  the  employers  and 
workmen  failed  to  agree.  As  the  workers  had  no  political 
power  it  is  evident  that  the  town  boards  always  represented 
the  masters  and  any  interference  was  seldom  to  their  disad- 
vantage. While  the  employers  were  exempt  from  penalties 
for  violating  the  act  the  workmen  continued  to  be  fined. 
The  law  was  later  repealed,  but  another  took  its  place  in 
1636  giving  towns  jurisdiction  in  fixing  wages.  But  in  1640 
prices  collapsed  and  there  was  danger  of  the  workers  reap- 
ing some  benefits  from  the  lower  prices.  The  colonial 
legislature  then  went  over  the  heads  of  the  towns  and  com- 
manded the  workmen  to  reduce  wages  to  correspond  zt'itJi 
reduced  prices  and  those  who  failed  to  respond  were  fined 
as  usual.^^ 

Massachusetts  at  the  same  time  bound  out  criminals 


i2See    Carroll    D.    Wright's    "Industrial    Evolution    of    the    United 
States,"  Chap.  IX. 


52  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

to  labor  as  apprentices.  The  whipping  post  was  in  frequent 
use  to  punish  servants,  and  when  whipped  the  term  of  servi- 
tude was  doubled.  The  towns  also  legislated  in  the  matter 
of  wages,  Dorchester,  for  example,  in  1641  orders  common 
laborers  to  work  for  certain  rates  during  the  year,  the  first 
period,  March  to  August,  for  28d.  a  day;  the  second, 
August  to  October,  I5d.  a  day;  the  third,  October  to  Decem- 
ber, 1 2d.  a  day,  and  the  fourth,  December  to  March,  i5d. 
a  day.^^  Connecticut  also  fixed  the  wages  of  workmen  in 
1641.  Workingmen  were  also  subject  to  compulsory  serv- 
ice for  the  towns  or  for  private  employers,  the  impressment 
being  enforced  as  though  it  were  a  military  duty.  The 
laborers  were  worked  at  regular  harvest  wages  fixed  by 
statute. 

The  fining  of  laborers  for  evading  the  statutes  and 
allowing  the  employer  to  go  free  was  frequent.  "The  con- 
trast in  treatment  of  employer  and  employed,  in  the  attempt 
to  fine  one  and  not  the  other  for  the  same  offense,  reflects 
the  notion  of  the  time  regarding  labor."^*  Blessed  Puritan 
Paradise,  where  Deacon  Tenpercent  robbed  his  laborers  by 
statute  law  and  broke  the  same  law  with  impunity ! 

Work  was  plenty  in  New  England  and  laborers  were 
not  sufficient  to  serve  the  needs  of  the  employing  class. 
The  real  wage  was  low  as  "the  workingman  was  obliged 
to  pay  comparatively  high  prices"^^  for  everything.  Agri- 
cultural laborers  received  wages  from  1752  to  1760  averag- 
ing thirty-one  cents  per  day;  butchers  in  1780  were  paid 
thirty-three    and    carpenters    fifty-two    cents.     On    the    eve 


isWeeden,  "Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  173.  See  also  Channing  and  Hart,  "American  History  Leaflets,"  No. 
31.    January,  1901. 

i4Weeden,  "Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,"  Vol.  I, 
pp.  82-83. 

loWright,  "Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States,"  p.  110. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  53 

of  the  Revolution  (1774)  the  wages  in  the  colonies  were 
about  seven  shillings,  a  sum  less  than  two  dollars  per  week, 
and  "on  such  a  pittance  it  was  only  by  the  strictest  economy 
that  a  mechanic  kept  his  children  from  starvation  and  him- 
self from  jail/'^'^ 

Although  black  and  white  slave  labor  were  not  abun- 
dant in  New  England,  the  policy  of  fixing  wages  by  law  gave 
the  ruling  classes  all  the  cheap  labor  they  desired.  These 
facts  compel  one  conservative  historian  to  admit  that  "An 
aristocracy  unquestionably  existed  in  New  England  from 
the  beginning,  always  possessing  great  power,  and  fully 
recognized, "^^  Yet  Carroll  D.  Wright  asserts  that  "The 
colonists  secured  one  thing  which  the  workingman  appre- 
ciated. They  were  free  (?)  men ;  they  were  not  tied  to  the 
soil ;  such  servitude  which  had  wrought  great  evil  under  the 
feudal  system  being  utterly  forbidden. "^^  He  also  regards 
this  legislation  as  a  sort  of  mania  rather  than  an  example 
of  class  rule  by  the  wealthy.  Yet  this  mania  for  keeping 
down  the  wages  of  the  workers  through  the  agency  of 
courts,  constables,  fines  and  foul  prisons  did  not  extend  to  a 
like  regulation  of  the  incomes  of  the  wealthy  classes.  On 
this  point  the  aristocracy  was  perfectly  "sane."  But  this 
fact  has  no  significance  for  the  late  labor  commissioner  of 
the  United  States. 

What  has  been  said  of  "free  labor"  in  New  England  is 
true  in  large  measure  of  the  same  class  of  workmen  in  the 
other  colonies.  We  have  dwelt  upon  it  at  some  length 
because  of  the  persistent  advertising  of  New  England  as 
"the  cradle  of  democracy  in  America."     We  shall  later  see 


leMcMaster,    "ITistory  of  the  People   of   the   United   States."   Vol. 
I,  p.  9<;. 

iTLodge,   "riistorv  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  442. 

isWright,   "The  industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States,"  p.  113. 


54  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

these  Puritan  upstarts  engaging  in  the  slave  trade  while 
denouncing  slavery ;  developing  smuggling  as  a  fine  art,  and 
establishing  vile  prisons  for  poor  laborers  unable  to  pay 
their  debts.  For  the  present  we  return  to  a  consideration 
of  the  unfortunate  white  laborers  who  were  bought  and  sold 
in  the  colonies. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  the  life  of  the 
indentured  slaves  was  hard  and  cruel.  In  fact,  some  of  the 
legislation  applying  to  them  recalls  the  bloody  legislation 
against  the  poor  in  the  Old  World.  There  are,  of  course, 
some  works  that  have  come  down  to  us  that  give  a  favorable 
picture  of  the  life  of  these  slaves,  but  in  most  cases  these 
works  were  written  by  those  interested  in  the  white  slave 
trade  or  their  agents  and  are,  therefore,  untrustworthy. 
Lucy  Maynard  Salmon  in  her  excellent  book^^  mentions  a 
number  of  these  works.  The  fact  that  today  glowing  ac- 
counts are  sent  by  ship  agents  and  capitalist  firms  to  Euro- 
pean countries  advertising  alleged  opportunities  in  America, 
indicates  that  modern  sweaters  are  merely  following  the 
example  of  the  Puritan  slavers  of  two  centuries  ago. 

The  laws  directed  against  disobedience  and  misde- 
meanors of  white  slaves  were  rigorous.  Those  calling  for 
the  severest  punishments  were  generally  offenses  against 
property — the  god  of  capitalist  civilization.  In  Virginia,  in 
1610,  pilfering  on  the  part  of  launderers,  laundresses, 
bakers,  cooks  and  dressers  of  fish  is  punished  with  whip- 
ping and  imprisonment ;  for  purloining  flour  and  meal  given 
out  for  baking  purposes,  offenders  have  their  ears  sliced  off ; 
for  the  second  offense  a  year  imprisonment  and  for  the  third 
offense,  three  years.    This  brutal  treatment  produced  a  reac- 


i9"Domestic   Service."    In   the  third   chapter  the   auther  gives  an 
interesting  digest  of  laws  in  the  colonies  applying  to  white  slaves. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  55 

tion  and  by  1700  laws  were  being  enacted  prescribing  limits 
to  the  punishment  allowed  and  in  some  cases  providing  pen- 
alties for  violation  of  the  acts.  The  laws  included  better 
provision  for  their  food,  clothing,  shelter  and  medical 
attendance ;  against  bodily  maiming,  whipping  without  the 
consent  of  the  proper  authorities  and  other  regulations 
which  throw  considerable  light  on  the  treatment  they  were 
subjected  to. 

Fugitive  slave  laws  as  applied  to  these  slaves  were  a 
part  of  the  legislation  in  all  colonies.  The  laws  generally 
provided  penalties  for  both  fugitives  and  those  who  gave 
them  shelter  or  aided  them  in  any  way  to  escape.  The  pen- 
alty for  fugitives  generally  included  an  addition  to  their 
terms  of  servitude  which  varied  in  each  colony.  Advertise- 
ments appear  in  all  the  colonial  newspapers.  The  following, 
from  the  Virginia  Gazette  (Williamsburg),  July  14,  1737, 
may  be  cited  as  an  example  of  hundreds : 

"Ran  away  some  time  in  June  last  from  William  Pierce 
of  Nansemond  county,  near  Mr.  Theophilus  Pugh's,  mer- 
chant ;  a  convict  servant  woman,  named  Winifred  Thomas. 
She  is  Welsh  woman,  short,  black  hair'd  and  young ;  marked 
on  the  inside  of  her  right  arm  with  gunpowder  W.  T.  and 
the  date  of  the  year  underneath.  She  knits  and  spins,  and 
is  supposed  to  be  gone  by  the  way  of  Cureatuck  and  Roan- 
oke inlet.  Whoever  brings  her  to  her  master  shall  be  paid 
a  pistole  besides  what  the  law  allows,  paid  by  William 
Pierce.""^ 

It  will  be  noted  that  this  woman  serf  had  her  initials 
and  the  date  when  she  was  purchased  branded  on  her  right 
arm. 


2o"DocumeTitary  History  of  American  IndustrLal   Society,"   Vol.   L 
p.  346. 


56  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Virginia  had  an  elaborate  code  fixing  the  status  of 
white  slaves  and  some  features  were  shocking  in  the  ex- 
treme. Among  the  large  number  of  laborers  who  left 
Europe  were  individuals  who  had  acquired  a  good  education 
and  were  fully  competent  teachers.  These  had  either  failed 
in  higher  pursuits  or  being  convicted  of  some  offense  had 
been  shipped  to  Virginia  and  sold  as  convicts.  It  was  not 
unusual,  therefore,  for  a  wealthy  planter  to  purchase  an 
educated  man  as  a  teacher  for  his  children.  They  were  sub- 
jected to  corporal  punishment  the  same  as  other  servants. 
The  number  of  lashes  was  administered  in  installments  of 
ten  strokes  at  different  intervals,  thus  rendering  the  punish- 
ment doubly  excruciating.^^ 

One  of  the  common  offenses  in  the  17th  century  was 
bastardy,  due  in  part  to  the  degraded  character  of  many 
servants,  men  and  women,  who  came  or  were  shipped  to  the 
colony,  and  the  fact  that  many  of  the  women  were  at  the 
mercy  of  their  masters  and  forced  to  enter  into  illicit  rela- 
tions with  them.  Masters  also  opposed  marriage  among  the 
women  servants  as  this  often  meant  an  interruption  of  their 
work  through  confinement  and  the  birth  and  care  of  chil- 
dren, while  the  death  of  a  mother  meant  the  loss  of  the  sum 
invested  in  her.  Their  indentures  often  rendered  it  difficult 
to  marry.  "Many  of  this  class  of  women  were  exposed  to 
improper  advances  on  their  masters'  part,  as  they  were,  by 
their  situation,  very  much  in  the  power  of  these  masters, 
who,  if  inclined  to  licentiousness,  would  not  be  slow  to  use 
it."  The  work  in  the  fields  and  barns  and  associations  after 
their  hours  of  labor  also  rendered  them  easy  victims  of  the 
lowest  class  of  brutalized  laborers  and  masters. 

Numerous  laws  were  passed  to  punish    the    crime    of 


2iBruce,    "Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  Vol.  I,  p.   621. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  57 

bastardy.  Anthony  Delmasse  and  Jane  Butterfield  were 
each  given  thirty  lashes  in  1642  for  this  crime  and  separated 
until  legally  united.  The  punishment  of  women  offenders 
was  generally  more  severe  than  for  men,  the  latter  gen- 
erally escaping  by  paying  a  fine  or  some  other  form  of  pun- 
ishment. Sometimes  the  man  was  only  required  to  appear 
before  the  parish  church  and  confess  his  sin,  while  the 
woman  was  given  a  brutal  whipping.  In  1649  a  woman  was 
given  fourteen  lashes,  while  the  father  of  her  child  was 
sentenced  to  build  a  bridge  across  a  creek. 

"After  the  middle  of  the  century,  the  offense  of 
bastardy  became  more  frequent  than  ever,  owing  to  the 
rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  female  domestic  and  agri- 
cultural servants,  who  were  imported  into  the  colony."  In 
1663  fourteen  cases  were  tried  in  one  county  at  one  session 
of  court,  and  in  1688  at  least  three  servant  women  of  one 
master  gave  birth  to  illegitimate  children.-^ 

One  important  duty  of  the  church  wardens  was  to  see 
that  the  parish  was  saved  from  expense  in  cases  of  bastardy. 
When  a  female  servant  gave  birth  to  a  child,  the  father  of 
which  was  her  master,  they  were  authorized  to  sell  her  for 
a  period  of  two  years,  the  sum  being  paid  in  tobacco  to  the 
parish.  Sometimes  they  compelled  the  father  to  give  bond 
that  the  child  would  not  become  a  charge  of  the  parish  dur- 
ing the  servitude  of  the  mother.  Sometimes  when  masters 
were  fined  for  this  offense  the  violated  mothers  were  re- 
required  to  repay  their  masters  by  an  extension  of  their 
terms  of  servitude. 

Near  the  close  of  the  century,  church  wardens  were 
empowered  to  bind  out  illegitimate  boys  until  they  were 
thirty  years  old.    Their  power  to  enforce  this  with  regard  to 


22Bruce,  "Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  Vol.  I,  Chap.  V. 


58  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

orphan  children  until  they  were  twenty  years  old  was  also 
frequently  exercised.  Poor  children,  whose  parents  were 
unable  to  provide  for  them  properly,  were  also  bound  out 
for  a  long  term  of  years. "^ 

One  historian  affirms  that  "By  the  acts  giving  the  mas- 
ter additions  of  time  for  the  birth  of  a  bastard  child  to  his 
servant,  a  premium  was  actually  put  upon  immorality,  and 
there  appears  to  have  been  masters  base  enough  to  take 
advantage  of  it."-* 

The  frequency  of  runaways  brought  about  the  pass 
system  by  which  persons  leaving  the  colony  were  required 
to  secure  g  pass.  Other  punishments,  such  as  whipping, 
branding  on  the  cheek  with  the  letter  R,  increasing  the 
terms  of  servitude  from  two  to  seven  years,  sometimes 
served  in  irons,  were  provided  for  those  who  were  taken  up 
as  runaways.-^ 

There  was  always  the  temptation  for  masters  to  harbor 
runaway  slaves  because  of  the  scarcity  of  labor  and  each 
colony  prescribed  penalties — generally  fines — for  offenders. 
Maryland  punished  slaves,  who  aided  fugitives,  with  lashes, 
not  to  exceed  thirty-nine,  on  the  bare  back.  The  colonial 
legislatures  also  provided  standing  rewards,  some  payable 
in  cash,  others  in  cloth  or  tobacco,  to  those  who  aided  in 
the  capture  of  runaways.  Fugitive  and  disobedient  serv- 
ants, as  they  were  usually  called,  suffered  humiliating  cor- 
poral punishment  prescribed  by  law.  This  generally  took 
the  form  of  public  whipping,  the  number  of  lashes  being 
prescribed  as  in  the  case  of  North  Carolina  where  the  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  directs  the  constable  to  give  strokes  "not 


23lbid,  Vol.  I,  Chap.  IX.    Prof.  Bruce's  work  is  a  great  achievement 
and  contains  a  mass  of  information  bearing  on  the  status  of  servants. 
24Ballagh,   "Wliite  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  Virginia,"  p.  79. 
2nlbid,  pp.  54-57,  passim. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  59 

exceeding  the  number  of  thirty-nine,  well  laid  on,  on  the 
back  of  such  runaway."  Bartering  with  white  slaves  or 
buying  from  them  is  a  crime  punished  with  fines  or  whip- 
ping or  both.  Other  harsh  laws  were  enacted  tending  to 
make  more  secure  the  servitude  of  these  unfortunates. 

The  attempt  in  North  Carolina  to  establish  a  feudal 
system  rendered  the  workers  subject  to  manor  lords  who 
could  not  leave  the  master's  land  without  written  permission. 
Here  the  laws  regarding  bastardy  were  similar  to  Virginia's, 
the  offending  masters  who  violated  their  female  servants 
generally  escaping  punishment  while  the  mother  was  sold 
and  the  money  went  into  the  coffers  of  the  church.  An  act 
of  1 74 1  stated  that  "Whereas  many  women  servants  are 
begotten  with  child  by  freemen  or  servants,  to  the  great 
prejudice  of  their  master  or  mistress  whom  they  serve,"  etc. 
The  language  indicates  that  seduction  of  girls  was  not  an 
unusual  thing.^° 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  these  bond  slaves 
worked  on  the  highways  of  i\'Iaryland  in  chains  and  that 
little  discrimination  was  made  in  the  treatment  of  men  and 
women.  In  this  colony  they  were  generally  worked  without 
mercy.  A  document  written  in  1679  states  that  "The  serv- 
ants and  negroes  (in  Maryland),  after  they  have  worn 
themselves  down  the  whole  day,  and  gone  home  to  rest,  have 
yet  to  grind  and  pound  the  grain,  which  is  generally  maize, 
for  their  masters  and  all  their  families  as  well  as  them- 
selves, and  all  the  negroes  to  eat."^'^  Working  under  such 
harsh  conditions  it  is  not  surprising  that  runaways  were 
numerous.  In  fact,  they  became  so  frequent  that  it  became 
hazardous  for  anyone  to  venture  on  a  journey,  especially  if 


26Bassett,  "Slavery  and  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  North  Carolina," 
Johns  Hopkins  University   Studies,   Chap.   "V. 

27Hart,  "Source  Book  of  American  History,"  p.  50. 


6o  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

poorly  clothed,  as  it  was  the  custom  of  sheriffs  to  lock  such 
suspicious  characters  up.  They  were  then  advertised  in  the 
papers  and  in  some  cases,  if  no  owner  was  found  within  a 
certain  time,  were  sold  to  defray  their  charges."^  Benjamin 
Franklin  tells  somewhere  in  his  Autobiography  of  his  fear 
of  being  jailed  as  a  runaway  during  his  memorable  walk 
from  Boston  to  Philadelphia  where  he  became  famous. 

For  a  time  Maryland  made  desertion  by  a  servant  pun- 
ishable with  death,  and  those  aiding  fugitives  were  subject 
to  the  same  penalty.  This  law  was  superseded  a  few  years 
later  by  one  which  provided  that  fugitives  should  serve 
double  the  time  of  their  absence  and  pay  the  costs  and  dam- 
ages by  servitude.  The  pass  system  was  also  adopted  and 
some  of  the  colonies  entered  into  agreements  for  the  return 
of  fugitive  servants.  Maryland  offered  standing  rewards 
to  the  people  of  other  colonies  for  the  capture  of  runaways 
and  a  captured  freeman  who  could  not  pay  the  costs  was 
sold  into  servitude.-^  Some  of  the  more  degraded  type  of 
women  servants  in  Maryland  contracted  marriages  with 
slaves  and  a  law  of  1664  required  that  such  women  shouM 
serve  their  masters  during  the  life  of  their  husbands,  while 
the  children  of  such  marriages  became  slaves  for  life.  "In- 
stead of  preventing  such  marriages,  this  law  enabled 
avaricious  and  unprincipled  masters  to  convert  many  of  their 
servants  into  slaves."^** 

The  ruling  classes  of  the  colonies  were  interested  in 
uniform  laws  for  recovering  fugitives,  but  found  it  difficult 
for  the  various  colonies  to  co-operate  in  their  apprehension. 
To  aid  in  making  better  defense  against  the  Indians  and  to 


28See  Hart,  "American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"  pp.  299- 
300,  where  advertisements  of  colonial  newspapers  are  given. 
29McCarmac,   "White  Servitude  in  Maryland,"  Chap.  V. 
solbid.  Chap.  VI. 


THE    WORKERS    IX    AMERICAN    HISTORY  6l 

assist  each  other  in  the  capture  of  runaway  servants,  a  con- 
federation of  the  New  England  colonies  was  formed  in 
1643.  Section  8  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation  provided 
a  uniform  fugitive  slave  law  for  all  the  colonies  to  aid  in 
recovering  zvhite  runazvays  for  their  ozvners.  The  section 
reads  as  follows : 

"It  is  agreed  that  if  any  servant  run  away  from  his 
master  into  any  other  of  these  jurisdictions,  that  in  such 
case,  upon  the  certificate  of  one  magistrate  in  the  jurisdic- 
tion out  of  which  the  said  servant  fled,  or  upon  other  due 
proof,  the  said  servant  shall  be  delivered,  either  to  his 
master  or  any  other  that  pursues  and  brings  such  certificate 
of  proof."" 

We  shall  later  see  a  similar  clause  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  which  we  have  every  reason  to  believe 
applied  to  white  as  well  as  black  slaves. 

There  is  abundant  testimony  to  indicate  that  the  aris- 
tocracy in  many  respects  not  only  regarded  some  classes 
of  white  slaves  as  beneath  the  blacks,  but  that  the  latter 
also,  in  some  cases,  felt  a  sense  of  superiority.  One  author- 
ity says :  "The  negro  slave  might  take  a  certain  sort  of 
pride  in  belonging  to  the  grand  establishment  of  a  powerful 
or  wealthy  master,  and  from  this  point  of  view  society 
might  be  said  to  have  a  place  for  him,  even  though  he  pos- 
sessed no  legal  rights.  There  was  no  such  haven  of  security 
for  the  mean  whites.  If  the  negro  was  like  a  Sudra,  they 
were  simply  Pariahs,"^^  Again,  speaking  of  the  whites,  the 
same  writer  says:  "Their  lives  were  in  theory  protected 
by  law,  but  where  an  indented  servant  came  to  hi«^  death 
from  prolonged  ill-usage,  or  from  excessive  punishment,  or 


3iBryce,    "The  American   Commonwealth,"   Abridged  Edition,   Ap- 
pendix III. 

32Fiske,  "Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,"  Vol.  II,  p.  189. 


62  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

even  from  sudden  violence,  it  was  not  easy  to  get  a  verdict 
against  the  master.""^ 

In  Pennsylvania  fugitives  received  five  days'  additional 
servitude  for  every  day  of  absence  by  flight  and  were 
whipped  for  theft  at  the  cart-tail.  A  severe  penalty  was 
also  provided  for  marrying  without  the  master's  consent, 
and  women  having  illegitimate  children  were  punished  by 
adding  more  days  to  their  time  of  service.  White  slaves 
were  also  recruited  from  the  offenders  who  could  not  pay 
■fines  and  zuere  sold  into  servitude.^*^ 

For  trifling  offenses  the  masters  were  able  to  prolong 
the  period  of  servitude  fixed  in  the  indentures  which  ren- 
dered the  lives  of  white  slaves  miserable  in  the  extreme. 
Loosely  drawn  indentures  also  placed  them  at  the  mercy 
of  the  owners.  This  was  particularly  true  of  Virginia, 
the  "Mother  of  Presidents,"  where  they  were  also  "coarsely 
clothed,  and  fed  upon  meal  and  water  sweetened  with 
molasses;  and  were  frequently  punished  with  great  bar- 
barity."^^ In  Virginia  and  Maryland  the  redemptioners 
outnumbered  the  negro  slaves  until  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  the  traffic  in  them  continued  well 
into  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Virginia, 
like  Massachusetts,  made  provi^sion  against  revolt  of  its 
serfs  early  in  the  history  of  the  colony.  "Not  only  to  speak 
evil  of  the  king,  but  even  to  vilify  the  London  company, 
was  a  treasonable  offense,  to  be  punished  with  death."^^ 

sslbid,  p.  178.  Prof.  McCormac  (White  Servitude  in  Maryland,  p. 
65)  dissents  from  tliis  judgment  of  Fiske  and  states  "that  the  master 
[in  Maryland]  was  not  always  found  guilty  of  murder,"  and  cites  a 
case  where  a  master,  charged  with  the  murder  of  his  servant,  was 
fined  300  pounds  of  tobacco  for  "unreasonable  and  unchristianlike  pun- 
ishment" of  his  servant.  The  jury  found  death  was  due  to  other 
causes.  As  the  administration  of  justice  was  as  much  a  class  institu- 
tion as  other  institutions  of  the  state,  the  acquittal  of  guilty  masters 
is  no  refutation  of  Fislte's  statement. 

34Lodge,  "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  245. 

ar.Ibid,  p.  70. 

soFiske,  "Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  164-165. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAxNT    HISTORY  63 

In  South  Carolina  the  white  slaves  were  mostly  re- 
demptioners.  The  masters  were  at  liberty  to  whip  them ; 
no  one  was  allowed  to  trade  with  them  and  their  travel 
was  limited.  When  their  terms  expired  they  were  soon 
lost  among  the  small  farmers  and  poor  whites.  In  North 
Carolina  corporal  punishment  was  frequently  resorted  to, 
and  if  the  bond  slave  ran  away  he  had  to  serve  a  double 
term  when  caught.  "If  a  woman  servant  gave  birth  to  an 
illegitimate  child  she  was  to  serve  an  additional  term,  and 
if  the  master  was  the  father,  then  she  zvas  sold  by  the  church 
wardens  for  the  public  benefit:"^' 

In  Georgia  the  slave  code  was  similar  to  North  Car- 
olina and  Virginia.  The  white  slaves  of  Georgia  and  other 
colonies  frequently  escaped  to  the  Spanish  border  and  led 
a  wild,  barbarous  life,  repaying  their  former  masters  with 
brigandage  and  robbery.  When  these  vagabonds  were 
captured  whipping,  branding  irons,  and  the  pillory  were 
employed  to  teach  them  the  error  of  their  ways.  But  the 
Georgia  border  continued  to  be  a  turbulent  section  even 
after  the  Revolution.  It  was  from  these  white  bond  slaves 
that  the  mass  of  "poor  whites"  in  the  mountain  districts  of 
the  South  were  recruited.  Owing  to  the  existence  of  negro 
slavery,  to  work  for  a  living  became  a  badge  of  shame  and 
the  "poor  whites,"  long  after  the  redemptionist  and  in- 
dentured system  disappeared,  were  still  regarded  as  mud- 
sills by  the  slave-owning  aristocracy  and  were  shunned  as 
though  they  were  beasts.  In  fact,  before  the  Civil  War,  it 
was  no  unusual  thing  for  a  slave  owner  to  hire  out  his 
negroes  to  other  employers  for  terms  much  higher  than 
zvhat  the  poor  ivhites  could  get.  A  few  examples  will  suf- 
fice.    "Sober,  energetic  white  men,  engaged  in  agricultural 

37Lodge,   "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  155. 


64  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

pursuits  at  $84  per  annum — including  board ;  slaves    .     .     . 
who  performed  little  more  than  half  the  amount  of  labor 

were  hired  out  on  adjoining  farms  at  an  average 
of  $115  per  annum,  including  board,  clothing  and  medical 
attendance.  Free  white  men  and  slaves  were  in  the  employ 
of    the    North    Carolina    Railroad    company ;    the     former 

received  only  $12  per  month  each ;  the  masters  of 
the  latter  received  $16  per  month  for  every  slave  so  em- 
ployed."^^  White  girls,  as  domestics,  received  $10  per  an- 
num and  board  while  slaves,  for  the  same  service,  were 
hired  out  for  $65  to  $70  per  year,  including  board,  cloth- 
ing and  medical  attendance.  Many  of  these  "free"  whites 
passed  through  life  without  ever  owning  so  much  as  five 
dollars.  "Thousands  of  them  die  at  an  advanced  age,  as 
ignorant  of  the  common  alphabet  as  if  it  had  never  been 
invented.  All  are  more  or  less  impressed  with  a  belief  in 
witches,  ghosts  and  supernatural  sigris."^^  Such  was  the 
legacy  bequeathed  to  the  nineteenth  century  by  the  "fa- 
thers'" of  the  American  government. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  here  to  state  that  many  men  who 
were  prominent  in  the  Revolution  profited  from  this  system 
of  servile  white  labor.  For  example,  George  Washington, 
in  1774,  wrote  a  ship  captain  expressing  his  desire  for  a 
supply  of  servants  to  place  on  his  Ohio  lands.  He  writes  of 
his  desire  to  import  them  at  his  expense,  "where  they  are 
unable  to  transport  themselves,  into  the  Potomac  river,  and 
from  hence  to  the  Ohio ;  to  have  them,  in  the  first  case,  en- 


38Helper,  "The  Impending  Crisis  of  the  South,"  p.  3S0.  This  boolt, 
the  work  of  a  Southerner,  was  written  a  few  years  before  the  Civil  war 
to  show  the  superiority  of  wage  labor  over  slave  labor.  It  had  a  great 
deal  of  influence  in  forming  opinion  regarding  slavery.  A  tragic  coin- 
cidence is  that  Helper,  after  having  played  such  an  important  part  in 
giving  capitalism  a  free  field  for  development  in  America,  was  unable 
to  succeed  under  the  new  regime  and,  in  April,  1909,  blew  his  brains 
out  in  Washington,  D.  C! 

39lbid,  p.  380. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  05 

gaged  to  me  under  indenture,  in  the  second,  by  some  other 
contract  equally  valid,  to  become  tenants  upon  the  terms 
hereafter  mentioned."  The  terms  suggested  are  that  the 
slaves  jointly  hind  themselves  to  reimburse  Washington  for 
any  losses  he  might  sustain  by  deaths  or  accidents.*'^  This 
proposed  toll  of  death  or  disease  was  probably  suggested 
by  the  inhuman  practices  of  the  ship  captains  engaged  in 
the  white  slave  trade,  which  is  reviewed  in  the  next  chapter. 
The  most  grasping  of  modern  sweaters  could  not  ask  for 
more  iron-clad  terms  from  his  victims  than  those  suggested 
by  the  "father  of  his  country." 

Before  Benjamin  Franklin  became  an  advocate  of  pop- 
ular views  in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  he  was  not 
averse  to  "turning  an  honest  penny"  by  speculating  in  the 
traffic  of  servant  contracts.  Some  masters  in  moving  from 
one  colony  to  another,  or  for  other  reasons,  sold  the  unex- 
pired indentures  of  their  servants  for  what  they  could  get 
for  them.  This  gave  rise  to  an  internal  trade  in  these  con- 
tracts and  speculators  bought  them  up  and  sold  them  for 
such  profits  as  the  market  conditions  would  permit.  Frank- 
lin, when  proprietor  of  the  "Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  occa- 
sionally purchased  slaves  or  the  time  of  redemptioners  and 
advertised  them  for  sale  in  his  paper.  "Likely  negro 
wenches"  were  advertised  for  sale  in  the  same  columns  with 
white  boys  and  girls  and  sometimes,  when  the  trade  was  not 
brisk,  they  were  sold  at  public  auction."  Later  in  life 
Franklin  became  opposed  to  slavery  and  was  active  in  the 
agitation  against  it. 

It   may    come    as    a  surprise  to  some  that  Booker  T. 


40See  Hart,   "American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"  Vol.  II, 
where  the  letter  is  reproduced. 

4iHeston,  "Slavery  and  Servitude  in  New  Jersey."    On  pages  24-25 
Heston  gives  a  list  of  such  advertisements  from  Franklin's  paper. 

5 


(£  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Washington,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  negro  race,  offers 
consolation  to  his  people  for  the  slavery  they  endured  by 
assuring  them  that  the  white  man  sold  his  ozvn  people  in 
America  as  ivell  as  the  blacks.  Not  only  this,  but  he  em- 
phasizes the  historical  fact  that  white  servitude  prevailed  in 
the  colonies  before  the  first  black  slaver  sailed  into  James- 
town, Virginia,  in  1619.  He  further  points  out,  what  is  no 
doubt  true,  that  "it  seems  probable  if  the  negro  had  not 
been  discovered  and  brought  to  this  country  as  a  laborer  the 
system  of  white  servitude  would  have  lasted  in  this  country 
a  great  deal  longer  than  it  actually  did"*-  The  negro,  be- 
cause of  his  powers  of  endurance,  became  a  more  efficient 
and  profitable  slave  than  the  white  worker  and,  naturally, 
in  time  displaced  the  white  slaves. 

Many  tragic  as  well  as  humorous  incidents  accom- 
panied the  system  of  white  servitude.  One  authority  relates 
how  one  "soul  driver"  in  Pennsylvania  was  tricked  by  a 
shrewd  Irish  redemptioner  he  was  trying  to  sell.  The  serv- 
ant "by  a  little  management,  contrived  to  be  the  last  of  the 
flock  that  remained  unsold,  and  traveled  about  with  his 
owner  without  companions.  One  night  they  lodged  at  a 
tavern,  and  in  the  morning,  the  young  fellow  who  was  an 
Irishman,  rose  early  and  sold  his  master  to  the  landlord, 
pocketed  the  money,  and  marched  oft".  Previously,  however, 
to  his  going,  he  used  the  precaution  to  tell  the  purchaser 
that  his  servant,  although  tolerably  clever  in  other  respects, 
was  rather  saucy  and  a  little  given  to  lying — that  he  even 
had  presumption  enough  at  times  to  endeavor  to  pass  for 
master,  and  that  he  might  possibly  represent  himself  so  to 
him.     By  the  time  mine  host  was  undeceived,  the  son  of 


42See  Washington,  "The  Story  of  the  Negro,"  Vol.  1,  Chap.  VI. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  67 

Erin  had  gained  such  a  start  as  rendered  pursuit  useless."'*^ 

One  gentleman  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  wanted  to 
buy  an  old  couple  for  house  servants.  An  old  man,  his  wife, 
and  daughter  were  offered,  and  after  paying  the  price  he 
discovered  he  had  bought  his  father,  mother  and  sister!** 

Generally  speaking  the  white  slaves  remained  in  pov- 
erty, after  they  worked  out  their  terms  of  service.  The 
system  being  devised  to  serve  the  material  interests  of  land 
speculators,  rich  planters  and  others  of  the  employing  class, 
had  little  in  it  to  stimulate  ambition  to  be  something  in  the 
world.  The  period  of  slavery,  carrying  with  it  the  shame 
and  humiliation  of  a  subject  class,  left  most  of  them  dull 
and  shiftless  when  they  were  released.  Many  of  them 
formed  the  historical  source  of  the  "poor  whites"  of  the 
South,*^  a  melancholy  class  of  workers  who  still  form  a  part 
of  the  population  of  the  Southern  states,  and  of  which  we 
will  have  more  to  say  in  another  chapter.  Out  of  their  suf- 
ferings and  those  of  the  blacks  arose  the  aristocracy  of 
Southern  planters,  the  New  York  land  kings,  and  the  fish- 
ing, commercial  and  slave-trading  aristocracy  of  New 
England.  A  few  of  the  slaves  became  distinguished.  George 
Taylor,  a  Pennsylvania  redemptioner,  was  one  of  the  signers 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Matthew  Thornton,  a 
signer  from  New  Hampshire,  also  belonged  to  this  class,  as 
did  Charles  Thomas,  secretary  of  Congress  during  the 
Revolution,  and  General  Sullivan,  a  commander  in  the 
Revolutionary  war.*" 

Prof.    Marion   Dexter   Learned   of   the   Universitv   of 


43Geiser,  "Redemptioners  and  Indentured  Servants  in  Pennsyl- 
vania," p.  54. 

44lbid,  p.  55. 

45Bassett,  "Slavery  and  Servitude  in  the  Colonv  of  North  Carolina," 
p.  85. 

46Geiser,  "Redemptioners,"  p.  109. 


68  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Pennsylvania  in  his  book,  "Abraham  Lincoln — An  Ameri- 
can Migration — Family  English,  Not  German,"  traces  Lin- 
coln's genealogy  back  to  Samuel  Lincoln,  who  sailed  from 
London,  April  i8,  1637,  as  the  servant  of  Francis  Lawes. 
Samuel  Lincoln,  the  white  serf,  was  the  great-great-great- 
great-grandfather  of  Abraham  who  fell  a  victim  to  the 
slave  power.*'' 

During  the  American  Revolution  the  white  slaves  as 
well  as  the  blacks  were  a  source  of  dread  to  those  sections 
of  the  aristocracy  who  were  active  in  the  movement  for 
separation  from  Great  Britain.  There  was  the  constant 
fear  that  during  these  turbulent  times  the  slaves  would 
desert  their  owners  and  fight  with  the  British.  The  officers 
of  the  British  army  were  not  slow  to  take  advantage  of  the 
situation  and  offer  inducements  to  the  servile  population  to 
join  in  the  sruggle  to  subdue  the  colonial  masters.  Lord 
Dunmore,  governor  of  Virginia,  in  1775,  published  a 
proclamation  declaring  martial  law  and  proclaimed  freedom 
"to  all  indentured  servants,  negroes  or  others  appertaining 
to  rebels"  who  would  "join  for  the  reducing  of  the  colony 
to  a  proper  sense  of  its  duty."  Washington  received  this 
news  with  alarm  and  referring  to  Dunmore,  wrote  "that 
man  .  .  .  will  be  the  most  formidable  enemy  of 
America  if  some  expedient  cannot  be  hit  upon  to  convince 
the  servants  and  slaves  of  the  impotency  of  his  designs."*^ 

No  doubt  many  took  advantage  of  the  British  offer  of 
freedom,  but  thousands  also  joined  the  American  forces 
to  escape  the  service  of  their  masters,  believing  that  inde- 
pendence would  also  bring  freedom.  A  law  of  Virginia 
was  enacted — perhaps    to    counteract    the    effect    of    Dun- 


47See  review  in   the   "New  York   Times   Saturday   Review,"    Feb- 
ruary 12,   1910. 

48Geiser,  "Redemptioners,"  pp.  100-101. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  69 

more's  proclamation — providing  that  all  white  servants 
would  be  freed  who  enlisted  in  the  Revolutionary  army,'"* 
It  was  the  farmers,  laborers  and  bond  slaves  who  made  up 
the  bulk  of  the  fighting  forces  under  Washington  and  his 
generals.  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  in  her  story  of  "The  American 
Woman,"^*^  tells  of  a  "bound  girl,"  Deborah  Sampson  Gan- 
nett, who  used  the  first  money  she  earned  at  teaching  to 
buy  cloth  with  which  she  made  herself  a  suit  of  men's  cloth- 
ing and  enlisted  in  the  army  under  the  name  of  Robert 
Shurtleff.  Wounded  twice,  her  sex  was  not  discovered  until 
the  Yorktown  campaign,  when  she  was  seized  with  brain 
fever.    She  was  later  voted  a  pension  by  Congress. 

The  Revolution  brought  few  changes  for  the  better 
for  white  slaves.  The  traffic  in  them  continued  and  the 
laws  afifecting  them  remained  on  the  whole  about  the  same. 
What  few  laws  were  enacted  making  the  lives  of  the  unfor- 
tunates less  wretched  were  not  initiated  by  the  men  who 
were  mouthing  phrases  about  "liberty,"  but  by  charitable 
societies  of  Germans  and  other  nationalities  whose  experi- 
ence and  observation  revealed  the  sufferings  their  enslaved 
countrymen  were  forced  to  endure.  As  early  as  1764  the 
Germans  of  Philadelphia  organized  the  first  of  a  number 
of  societies  in  the  seacoast  cities  to  improve  the  lot  of  re- 
demptioners.  By  constant  agitation  they  succeeded  in  abol- 
ishing some  atrocious  abuses  that  had  developed  with  the 
traffic.^^  One  writer^^  mentions  the  sale  of  one  German 
Swiss  and  two  French  Swiss  from  a  ship  in  Philadelphia 
in    August,     1817.     Another^^    asserts    that  the  sale  of  re- 


49L,ecky,    "The  American  Revolution."  p.  285. 
r.o"The  American  Magazine,"  November,  1909. 

BiFaust,  "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.   I,  pp. 
71-73. 

52Salmon,  "Domestic  Service,"  p.  20. 
53Faust,  p.  72. 


70  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

demptioners  was  abolished  in  1820.  Still  another  states 
that  though  the  system  was  declining,  "the  German  redemp- 
tioners  are  mentioned  in  statutes  of  Pennsylvania  as  late  as 
1818,  and  the  registry  of  redemptioners  at  Philadelphia 
shows  that  the  last  servant  was  bound  in  1831."°* 

In  other  words,  a  half  century  had  passed  into  history 
since  the  adoption  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
which  declared  "all  men  are  free  and  equal,"  and  yet  the 
purchase  of  zvhite  flesh  had  not  become  extinct. 

The  general  character  of  this  white  bond  service  may 
be  seen  from  the  following,  written  in  1770  by  William 
Eddis,  an  English  traveler  in  America  and  for  eight  years 
a  resident: 

"Negroes,"  he  writes,  "being  a  property  for  life,  the 
death  of  slaves,  in  the  prime  of  youth  or  strength,  is  a 
iraterial  loss  to  the  proprietor;  they  are,  therefore,  almost 
in  every  instance,  under  more  comfortable  circumstances 
than  the  miserable  European  (immigrant)  over  whom  the 
rigid  planter  exercises  an  inflexible  severity.  They  are 
strained  to  the  utmost  to  perform  their  allotted  labour;  and, 
from  a  prepossession,  in  many  cases  too  justly  founded, 
they  are  supposed  to  be  receiving  only  the  just  reward  which 
is  due  to  repeated  offenses.  There  are  doubtless  many  ex- 
ceptions to  this  observation,  yet,  generally  speaking,  they 
groan  beneath  a  worse  than  Egyptian  bondage.  By 
attempting  to  lighten  the  intolerable  burthen,  they  often 
render  it  more  insupportable.  For  real  or  imaginary  causes, 
these  frequently  attempt  to  escape,  but  very  few  are  suc- 
cessful ;  the  country  being  intersected  with  rivers,  and  the 
utmost  vigilance  observed  in  detecting  persons  under  sus- 
picious  circumstances,   who,   when   apprehended,   are  com- 


.'i'lGeiser,  "Redemptioners,"  p.  42. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  yi 

mitted  to  close  confinement,  advertised  and  delivered  to 
their  respective  masters,  .  .  .  The  unhappy  culprit  is 
doomed  to  a  severe  chastisement;  and  a  prolongation  of 
servitude  is  decreed  in  full  proportion  to  expenses  incurred, 
and  supposed  inconveniences  resulting  from  a  desertion  of 
duty.""" 

This  general  subjection  of  white  immigrant  laborers, 
together  with  the  kidnaped  blacks,  was  a  factor  second  in 
importance  to  the  conquest  of  natural  resources  in  making 
a  ruling  class  possible.  Both  gave  wealth,  power  and  influ- 
ence to  an  aristocracy  in  all  the  colonies  and,  together  with 
political  privileges  based  on  the  ownership  of  property, 
placed  the  governing  powers  in  the  hands  of  the  masters 
so  that  the  legislation  of  the  colonial  period  reflects  the 
property  interests  that  ruled.  Cheap  slave  labor  was  essen- 
tial to  the  continuance  of  class  rule  until  the  control  of 
natural  resources  had  extended  far  enough  to  permit  the 
system  of  indentured  service  to  die.  With  such  control  the 
masters  could  gradually  release  white  slaves  in  a  market 
fairly  well  stocked  with  "free  laborers"  compelled  to  com- 
pete with  each  other  for  employment. 

Of  course,  there  was  the  western  frontier  for  the  op- 
pressed to  move  to,  but  here  also  there  were  two  factors 
at  work,  after  the  passing  of  indentured  service  as  well  as 
before  it,  which  made  the  free  lands  of  the  West  largely  a 
myth  of  the  historians.  One  was  the  continued  confiscation 
or  acquirement  by  fraud  or  bribery  of  the  western  lands  by 
land  speculators  and  land  corporations  and  the  consequent 
exploitation  of  the  more  daring  and  rebellious  who  ad- 
vanced into  the  wilderness.     The  second  was  the  policy  of 


ri5"Documentarv  History  of  American  Industrial   Society,"   Vol.   I, 
pp.  343-344. 


'J2  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

the  colonial  rulers  in  dealing  with  the  Indians.  The  frontier 
settlements  were  continually  exposed  to  attacks  by  Indians 
and  massacres  frequently  took  place.  The  aristocracy  con- 
trolling the  legislatures,  before  and  after  the  Revolution, 
seldom  provided  the  military  protection  these  settlements 
required.  In  1794  the  settlers  at  Lexington,  Kentucky, 
adopted  revolutionary  resolutions,  declaring  that  "the  pro- 
tection of  the  frontier  was  a  duty  of  the  United  States 
government."^^  Early  in  the  same  year  a  debate  in  Congress 
disclosed  the  miserable  wages  paid  even  those  who  engaged 
in  protecting  the  frontier.  "Each  private  at  that  time 
received  every  four  weeks,  as  compensation  for  the  hunger 
and  privations  he  suffered  at  the  frontier  posts,  a  sum  not  so 
great  as  is  now  paid  for  three  days  of  toil.  His  hire  was 
three  dollars  a  month."^'' 

This  wretched  remuneration  was  calculated  to  discour- 
age enlistments  for  frontier  duty.  The  "free  laborer," 
therefore,  had  the  alternative  of  staying  within  reach  of  the 
masters  and  working  for  them,  or  moving  out  into  the 
forests  to  incur  the  danger  of  massacre  by  savage  foes. 
In  other  words,  the  ruling  classes  preferred  to  see  the  poor 
man  scalped  than  to  allow  him  to  escape  from  serving  for 
wages  that  scarcely  guaranteed  subsistence.  This  frontier 
policy  was  one  cause  of  "Bacon's  Rebellion"  in  1676,  which 
we  will  consider  in  another  chapter. 

The  conquest  of  land  and  laborers,  together  with  this 
military  policy,  made  the  triumph  of  the  ruling  classes 
nearly  complete.     Before  leaving  the  subject  it  is  necessary 


56Faust,  "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  "Vol.  I,  p.  379. 
57McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II. 
p.  178. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  'JZ 

to  review  the  horrors  of  the  white  slave  trade  to  the  colo- 
nies, a  trade  that  began  before  the  slavers  brought  negroes 
to  America  and  one  as  atrocious  as  the  commerce  in  these 
African  aborigines. 


74  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Chapter  IV 

The  White  Slave  Trade 


"The  history  of  our  colonization  is  the  history  of  the 
crimes  of  Europe."^  By  "Europe"  the  American  historian 
means  the  ruHng  classes  of  Europe,  for  the  serfs  and  artisans 
of  the  European  countries  certainly  had  no  share  in  the 
crimes  that  accompanied  the  settlement  of  the  colonies,  but 
were  the  victims  of  these  crimes. 

Few  people  today  know  or  even  suspect  that  a  slave 
trade  in  white  men,  transported  to  America,  reached  large 
proportions  in  our  early  history.  It  is  one  of  those  unpleas- 
ant facts  which  historians  prefer  to  dwell  on  briefly  or  not  at 
all,  so  that  he  who  wishes  to  know  the  extent  and  character 
of  this  commerce  must  consult  a  dreary  mass  of  historical 
documents,  and  even  then  must  piece  together  the  fragments 
of  information  which  his  research  reveals.  And  yet  any 
view  of  our  history,  including  the  colonial  era  and  the  half 
century  that  followed  independence,  that  do3s  not  include  a 
knowledge  of  the  gains  of  this  traffic ;  the  sufferings  of  the 
victims  in  the  voyage  to  America ;  the  methods  employed  to 
induce  them  to  emigrate ;  the  brutality  of  the  slavers  who 
engaged  in  it,  and  the  servitude  the  workers  endured  in 
America,  is  a  view  as  distorted  as  though  one  were  to 
describe  the  wealthy  residence  section  of  New  York  today 
and  hand  this  view  on  to  posterity  as  a  faithful  picture  of 
present  civilization.     This  latter  view  would  leave  out  of 


iBancroft,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  IT,  p.  251. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  75 

consideration  the  East  Side  with  its  milhons  in  tenement 
hells  and  sweatshops,  the  bread  lines,  the  unemployed,  and 
the  hand-to-mouth  existence  that  other  multitudes  are  forced 
to  live. 

The  historian  is  invariably  a  man  whose  associations 
and  environment  have  formed  an  aristocratic  type  of  mind 
which  shrinks  from  revealing  anything  that  reflects  dis- 
credit on  the  "great  men"  of  the  past.  The  past  must  be 
vindicated  in  the  interests  of  the  class  that  today  possesses 
resources  originally  secured  by  force,  fraud  and  the  servi- 
tude of  workingmen.  And  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
writer  who  would  tell  the  whole  truth  would  pay  the  penalty 
by  having  his  work  killed  by  the  literary  police  who  pass 
judgment  on  literature.  It,  therefore,  happens  that  in  addi- 
tion to  the  habits,  associations  and  training  which  give  a 
conservative  cast  to  the  mind  of  the  historian,  there  is  the 
safeguard  that  he  will  not  become  "sensational," — that  is  to 
say,  truthful — because  of  the  penalty  his  folly  would  invite. 
Hence  the  history  of  colonial  society  has  been  written  with 
one  chapter  usually  left  out,  and  that  one  more  important 
than  the  silly  gossip  of  some  "statesman"  or  the  love  affairs 
of  a  colonial  flirt. 

In  considering  the  slave  trade  it  has  been  the  fashion  to 
dwell  entirely  on  the  traffic  in  negroes,  and  as  this  traffic  at 
one  time  or  another  was  indulged  in  by  the  ruling  classes 
of  most  modern  nations,  no  special  discredit  attaches  to 
America  and  its  rulers.  In  fact,  one  may  easily  find  graphic 
descriptions  of  the  horrors  of  this  trade.  It  is  certainly 
revolting  to  know  of  the  slave  raids  in  Africa  by  men 
trained  for  their  work ;  of  the  crowding  of  vessels  with 
slaves  to  the  limit  of  their  capacity ;  how  the  stronger 
strangled  the  weaker  to  get  more  air;  how  the  stench  from 


76  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

below  was  so  great  that  the  slavers  could  not  stand  near 
the  hatchways;  how  the  steaming  bodies  of  the  dead  were 
constantly  cast  into  the  sea;  or  the  wretched  spectacle  of 
the  half-starved  survivors — frequently  only  one-third  of 
those  who  embarked — who  were  finally  sold  to  Southern 
planters.  We  may  even  recoil  from  the  inhumanity  that 
prompted  slavers  to  chain  an  entire  cargo  of  these  unfor- 
tunates to  an  iron  cable  and  with  a  blow  of  an  ax  send 
them  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea.^ 

But  atrocious  as  these  practices  were  it  is  doubtful 
whether  they  were  not  equaled  by  the  practices  of  the  men 
who  engaged  in  the  business  of  transporting  white  slaves 
from  European  countries  to  America,  The  demand  for 
servile  labor  in  a  sparsely  settled  country  and  the  struggle 
to  share  in  the  large  profits  growing  out  of  the  traffic,  made 
abuses  inevitable.  The  gains  of  the  trade  took  the  curse 
ofif,  for  "it  takes  men  a  weary  while  to  learn  the  wickedness 
of  anything  that  puts  gold  in  their  purses."  (Fiske.)  For- 
tunately for  the  ship  captains  and  speculators,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  economic  changes  taking  place  in  Europe  provided 
them  a  large  supply  of  helpless  poor  to  draw  upon. 

The  London  company  of  adventurers  who  settled  Vir- 
ginia was  eager  to  employ  child  labor  in  developing  the 


2"Ethiopia,  Her  Gloom  and  Glory,"  pp.  82-83.  This  is  an  interest- 
ing series  of  lectures  delivered  by  David  Cliristy  for  the  Colonization 
Society  before  the  Civil  War.  The  author  regarded  the  slavery  ques- 
tion as  the  old  conflict  between  "evil  and  good,"  or  as  a  consequence 
of  "the  Fall  of  Man."  Yet  the  lectures  are  brilliant  in  their  portrayal 
of  the  economic  basis  of  slavery  and  emancipation.  For  example,  Brit- 
ish emancipation  in  the  West  Indies  instead  of  inducing  the  negroes  to 
work  long  hours  for  wages  resulted  in  them  working  only  three  or  four 
days  in  the  week,  and  only  five  or  six  hours  each  day,  just  enough  to 
supply  their  simple  wants.  The  rest  of  the  time  they  spent  under  shade 
trees.  Christy  remarks  that  "they  have  no  stimulant  to  perform  an 
adequate  amount  of  labor."  In  other  words,  to  supply  his  own  wants 
is  not  "adeauate."  The  proper  "stimulant"  was  later  provided  with 
capitalist  production  when  both  blacks  and  whites  sold  themselves  daily 
for  wages  and  produced  surplus  incomes  for  British  exploiters  in  addi- 
tion to  their  own  subsidence. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  'J'J 

resources  of  the  colony.  In  1619  its  records  acknowledge 
the  arrival  of  one  hundred  children,  "save  such  as  dyed  on 
the  waie,"  and  another  hundred,  twelve  years  old  or  over, 
is  asked  for.  In  1627  many  ships  arrived,  bringing  fourteen 
and  fifteen  hundred  children  kidnaped  by  "spirits"^  in  Euro- 
pean ports,  and  a  few  years  later  they  send  a  request  to 
London  for  another  supply  of  "friendless  boyes  and  girles."* 
In  England  Bristol  was  one  of  the  last  cities  to  give  up  the 
traffic  in  white  children  sold  in  American  colonies.  This 
city  for  several  hundred  years  remained  a  white  slave  mar- 
ket, Avhere  it  was  "no  uncommon  thing  to  behold  young  girls 
exposed  for  sale."^  By  1664  the  kidnaping  had  increased 
to  such  proportions  that  the  committee  for  foreign  planta- 
tions interfered,  and  an  office  was  created  with  the  duty  of 
"keeping  a  record  of  all  persons  going  to  America  as  serv- 
ants, and  the  statement  that  they  had  voluntarily  left  Eng- 
land." A  penalty  of  death  was  later  provided  for  kidnaping, 
yet  "ten  thousand  persons  were  annually  kidnaped  after  the 
passage  of  the  act."^ 

Paupers  were  turned  over  to  corporations,  prisons  were 
emptied,  and  convicts  were  reprieved  to  supply  the  demands 
of  those  engaged  in  the  trade.'^  Servants  shipped  at  an 
expense  of  eight  or  ten  pounds  were  sometimes  sold  for 
forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  pounds,  and  even  higher  rates.  "Like 
negroes,  they  were  to  be  purchased  on  shipboard,  as  men 


3The  term  had  its  origin  in  the  skill  and  cunning  employed  by  the 
kidnapers  who  "spirited"  away  their  victims.  Ship  captains  would  send 
their  crews  ashore  to  steal  children  and,  in  many  cases,  adults,  who 
were  sold  in  America.  These  "spirits"  were  a  source  of  terror  to  the 
poor  in  those  ports  which  the  slavers  visited. 

4Abbott,  "Women  in  Industry,"  pp.  332-333. 

tiWashington,    "The  Story  of  the  Negro,"  Vol.  I,  p.  111. 

eSalmon,  "Domestic  Service,"  p.  22.  See  also  Fiske,  "Old  Vir- 
ginia and  Her  Neighbors,"  Vol.  H,  p.  177;  Thwaites,  "The  Colonies," 
p.  74,  and  Geiser,  "Redemptioners,"  p.  21. 

TCheyney,  "European  Background  of  American  History,"  p.  169. 


78  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

buy  horses  at  a  fair."^  In  England  men  of  high  positions 
at  the  court  scrambled  for  a  share  in  the  profits  to  be  secured 
from  the  trade  in  prisoners  of  war.  The  mayor  of  Bristol 
and  other  officials  terrorized  petty  offenders  into  praying 
for  transportation;  they  "were  then  divided  among  mem- 
bers of  the  court."^  This  traffic  proved  more  profitable  than 
the  slave  trade.  So  profitable,  in  fact,  that  those  engaged  in 
it  were  able  to  evade,  or  even  suspend,  the  law  which  in 
1670  provided  the  death  penalty  for  kidnaping.  One  au- 
thority states  that  the  offense  was  treated  with  "remarkable 
leniency  by  the  courts."  Under  the  Civil  Law  it  would 
have  been  punished  with  death,  but  we  meet  with  petty  fines 
of  a  few  shillings,  even  when  the  'spirit'  confessed  the  crime, 
and  in  one  case  only  I2d.,  a  few  hours  in  the  pillory,  or  im- 
prisonment till  the  fine  was  paid  seems  to  have  been  consid- 
ered by  the  judges  a  sufficient  atonement.  The  Session  Rolls 
of  Middlesex  show  that  a  large  number  of  the  cases  were 
not  even  brought  to  trial,  though  true  bills  had  been  brought 
against  the  offenders."^" 

The  practice  of  forcible  exportation  of  poor  wretches 
was  taken  advantage  of  by  wealthy  persons.  Those  belong- 
ing to  the  upper  classes  and  having  family  skeletons  to 
conceal  or  inheritances  to  secure  or  some  criminal  scheme 
to  advance,  had  objectionable  members  of  their  class  or 
family  seized  and  transported  to  America  and  sold.^^  A 
niece  of  Daniel  Defoe,  the  English  author,  left  England  in 
1 718,  and  having  no  money  to  pay  her  passage,  was  sold  by 
the  ship  captain  at  Philadelphia  and  later  married  a  relative 
of  her  owner.^^ 

sBancroft,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I,  p.  175. 
Dibid,  Vol.  I,  p.  176;  Vol.  II,  p.  251. 

loBallagh,  "White  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  Virginia,"  p.  38,  foot 
note. 

iiSalmon,   "Domestic  Service,"  p.  21. 

i2Heston,  "Slavery  and  Servitude  in  New  Jersey,"  p.  27. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORV  79 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  Neulanders  and  their 
work  in  Europe  in  stimulating  emigration.  Though  they 
circulated  stories  of  opportunities  to  be  had  in  America  they 
were  invariably  failures  themselves,  and  took  up  slave-hunt- 
ing as  a  profession.  Advertising  of  various  kinds  was  dis- 
tributed broadcast  and  the  emigration  from  Germany 
threatened  to  depopulate  the  provinces.  The  Neulanders 
received  a  commission  for  every  person  they  persuaded  to 
emigrate,  generally  three  florins  or  a  ducat  in  Holland, 
while  the  merchant  in  Philadelphia  sold  them  for  sixty  or 
eighty  florins  each  in  proportion  to  the  debt  incurred  by 
the  emigrant  on  the  voyage.  One  Scotchman,  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  tells  of  his  being  kidnaped  and, 
after  a  six  months'  voyage,  being  sold  into  seven  years' 
servitude  at  Philadelphia  for  sixteen  pounds.^^  From  1682 
to  1804  the  proportion  of  white  slaves  to  the  whole  number 
of  immigrants  to  Pennsylvania  steadily  increased,  till  they 
constituted  tzvo-thirds  during  the  last  nineteen  years.^*  This 
enormous  exodus  from  Germany  and  Holland  is  suggestive 
of  the  work  of  the  emigrant  hunters  in  these  countries. 

These  agents  came  mainly  from  Pennsylvania  as  rep- 
resentatives of  William  Penn  or  land  speculators  who  had 
secured  land  from  the  immense  domains  he  possessed. 
Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  migration  from  Rotter- 
dam and  then  to  London  reached  enormous  proportions. 
Five  thousand  arrived  in  the  latter  city  during  May  and 
June,  1709.  This  number  was  doubled  by  August  and  two 
months  later  thirteen  thousand  were  in  London.  Still  the 
stream  of  deluded  pauperized  poor  swelled.  So  great  was 
the  exodus  that  it  became  a  serious  problem  to  feed  them 


isGeiser,    "Redemptioners,"   pp.   20-21. 
I41bid,  p.  41. 


80  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

while  waiting  for  ships  to  transport  them  to  America.  "Star- 
vation staring  the  needy  Palatines  in  the  face,  England  for 
months  provided  them  with  food.  Having  no  homes,  they 
were  sheltered  in  barns,  empty  dwellings,  warehouses, 
and  a  thousand  tents  taken  from  the  army  stores.  The 
queen  allowed  each  ninepence  per  day  for  subsistence,  and 
such  lodgings  as  could  best  be  obtained.  The  paupers  of 
London  grew  envious  of  the  provision  made  for  the  for- 
eigners, and  filed  complaints  against  such  exceptional  treat- 
ment."^^ 

The  great  numbers  congregated  in  London  were  trans- 
ported to  Ireland,  Louisiana  and  other  places,  while  Gov- 
ernor Hunter  of  New  York  contrived  to  have  three  or  four 
thousand  sent  to  that  colony.  Over  half  of  them  died  of  the 
overcrowding  and  disease  of  the  ship.  Some  were  placed 
upon  the  great  Livingston  estate,  where  the  exploitation  was 
so  severe  that  they  deserted.  Some  secured  land  of  the 
Indians,  but  after  planting  crops  were  informed  by  the 
Governor  that  their  titles  were  void  and  that  they  must  pay 
for  them.  A  few  submitted  and  the  rest  again  pushed  into 
the  wilderness.^^  This  process  of  invalidating  titles  by 
grafting  governors  and  collecting  fees  for  reissues  was  a 
chronic  evil  throughout  the  colonial  period  in  New  York, 
and  six  or  seven  years  were  sufficient  for  a  governor  to 
become  wealthy  by  these  practices. 

The  atrocities  which  developed  with  the  transportation 
of  emigrants  would  be  incredible  were  it  not  for  the  unim- 
peachable evidence  collected  in  a  few  works.  We  have 
shown  the  kidnaping  of  blacks  in  Africa  duplicated  by  the 


isFaust,  "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I,  pp. 
77-78. 

leFisher,   "Men,  Women  and  Manners  in  Colonial  Times,"  Vol.  II, 
pp.  104-105. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  8l 

kidnaping  of  whites  in  Europe.  The  overcrowding  of  ships 
in  the  African  slave  trade,  with  its  consequent  horrors  of 
epidemics  of  scurvy  and  small  pox,  deaths  by  starvation, 
smothering  and  violence,  also  had  their  counterpart  in  the 
white  slave  trade  of  American  ship  masters  with  Europe. 
In  fact,  some  of  the  details  of  this  traffic  are  sickening  and 
are  scarcely  exceeded  in  cruelty  by  the  deeds  of  barbarous 
peoples  who  lack  the  culture  of  civilization.  The  death  of 
a  black  slave  on  the  voyage  to  America  meant  a  distinct 
loss  to  the  slaver;  but  death  did  not  always  rob  the  ship 
captain  of  his  profits  on  the  white  slave  trade.  The  white 
slavers  managed  to  collect  a  toll  of  death  by  providing  that 
"surviving  relatives  of  those  who  died  at  sea  after  the  ves- 
sel had  made  more  than  one-half  of  the  journey,  ivere  held 
responsible  for  the  debts  of  the  deceased."^'' 

Not  all  those  who  left  Europe  did  so  with  the  intention 
of  serving  a  period  of  years  in  the  colonies  to  pay  for  their 
passage.  Many  of  them,  after  many  sacrifices,  saved  suf- 
ficient sums  to  pay  the  expense  of  the  voyage.  But  ship 
captains,  co-operating  with  Neulanders,  contrived  methods 
by  which  they  robbed  emigrants  of  their  money  and  sold 
them  into  servitude  to  pay  debts  contracted  on  the  voyage. 
In  the  journey  from  their  homes  to  the  ships  tolls,  fees  and 
duties  were  exacted  on  their  baggage.  The  baggage  itself, 
often  containing  money  or  valuables,  was  either  stolen  or 
sent  by  another  boat  leaving  the  emigrant  at  the  mercy  of 
the  ship  master.  Enormous  prices  were  also  charged  for 
meals  so  that  the  poor  wretches  thus  swindled  were  sold  on 
their  arrival  in  America  to  pay  for  debts  forced  upon  them. 
Even  those  whose  funds  were  not  exhausted  by  these  prac- 
tices had  no  guarantee  that  they  would  not  be  sold.     "The 


iTGeiser,  "Redemptioners,"  pp.  53-54. 


82  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

iveU-to-do  would  liave  to  pay  for  those  zvho  could  not,  or 
be  themselves  sold  as  redemptioners.  This  arrangement 
protected  the  captain  against  loss,  in  case  a  large  number  of 
redemptioners  died  on  the  way,  and  also  gave  him  an  ex- 
cuse for  extortions.  The  Germans  of  Philadelpha  at- 
tempted to  legislate  against  these  abuses,  beginning  in  1750, 
but  were  for  a  long  time  unsuccessful,  because  of  the  pres- 
ence in  high  places  of  influential  grafters  heavily  interested 
in  the  profits  of  immigrant  transportation."^^  It  may  be 
said  in  passing,  in  that  day  the  payment  of  fare  did  not 
include  board,  and  as  the  immigrant's  provisions  were  often 
with  his  baggage,  the  theft  of  these  left  him  at  the  mercy 
of  his  exploiters. 

However,  this  robbery,  bad  as  it  is,  is  humane  com- 
pared with  the  terrible  experience  of  these  unfortunates  on 
board  the  ships.  Here  the  wretchedness  growing  out  of 
the  avarice  of  the  slavers  runs  the  gamut  of  human  suf- 
fering. The  large  profits  to  be  obtained  from  the  traffic  led 
to  overcrowding.  Almshouses  and  prisons  were  emptied  to 
secure  human  merchandise  for  American  employers.  "The 
crowded  exportation  of  Irish  Catholics,"  Brancroft  writes, 
"was  a  frequent  event,  and  was  attended  by  aggravations 
hardly  inferior  to  the  usual  atrocities  of  the  African  slave 
trade. "^''  Starvation  and  death  from  thirst  were  common 
occurrences.  Shipwrecks  were  also  frequent  and  reports 
of  these  were  suppressed  in  Europe.  Two  thousand  died 
in  one  year  of  diseases  resulting  from  overcrowding.  One 
ship  sailing  in  1730  with  150  emigrants,  had  only  13  sur- 
vivors. Another  sailed  in  1745  with  400  Germans,  of 
whom  only  50  lived  to  see  America.     Still  another  bearing 


isFaust,    "The  German  Element  in   the  United   States,"   Vol.   I,   p. 
69.    See  also  Geiser,  "Redemptioners,"  p.  43. 

i9Quoted  by  Washington,  "The  Story  of  the  Negro,"  Vol.  I,  p.  110. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  83 

1,500  lost  1,100  from  deaths  on  the  voyage.  Children  sel- 
dom survived  the  journey ;  "many  a  time  parents  are  com- 
pelled to  see  their  children  die  of  hunger,  thirst  or  sickness, 
and  then  see  them  cast  into  the  water.  Few  women  in  con- 
finement escaped  with  their  lives ;  many  a  mother  is  cast 
into  the  water  with  her  child."-'^ 

The  space  allotted  to  the  emigrants  on  board  ship  ac- 
counts for  the  frightful  mortality  from  disease.  Emigrant 
ships  sailing  from  Holland  packed  their  passengers  in  a 
space  two  feet  wide  and  six  feet  long.  The  rations  served 
are  small  and  poor ;  the  drinking  water  is  black,  thick  and 
full  of  worms ;  spoiled  biscuits,  full  of  red  worms  and 
spider's  nests,  are  served  to  the  starving.  Hunger  on  one 
boat  drove  the  starving  men  to  break  into  the  food  apart- 
ment for  which  all  the  passengers  were  punished.  The  men 
received  no  bread  and  the  women  only  one  biscuit.  Twenty 
men,  women  and  children  died  of  hunger.  "The  hunger 
was  so  great  on  board  that  all  the  bones  about  the  ship 
.  were  pounded  with  a  hammer  and  eaten ;  and 
what  is  more  lamentable,  some  of  the  deceased  persons, 
not  many  hours  before  their  death,  crawled  on  their  hands 
and  feet  to  the  captain,  and  begged  him  for  God's  sake,  to 
give  them  a  mouthful  of  bread  or  a  drop  of  water  to  keep 
them  from  perishing,  but  their  supplications  were  in  vain ; 
he  most  obstinately  refused,  and  thus  did  they  perish."^^ 
Mittleberger,  a  German  traveler,  mentions  "thirty-two  chil- 
dren in  our  ship,  all  of  whom  were  thrown  in  the  sea. 
Children  who  have  not  yet  had  the  measles  or 
small  pox  generally  get  them  on  board  the  ship,  and  mostly 


20Faust,  "The  German  Element,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  70-71.  See  also 
Geiser,  "Redemptioners"  (p.  48),  for  account  of  deaths  from  starvation 
and  disease. 

2iGelser,  "Redemptioners,"  p.  49,  quoting  Mittleberger,  a  German 
traveler  -who  wrote  in  1750. 


84  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

die  of  them  .  .  .  sometimes  whole  families  die  in 
quick  succession;  so  that  often  many  dead  persons  lie  in 
the  berths  beside  the  living  ones,  when  contagious  diseases 
have  broken  out.     .      .      ."^^ 

When  these  slave  ships  landed  at  Philadelphia  or  other 
ports  the  scenes  were  pathetic  in  the  extreme.  The  immi- 
grants are  examined  before  the  ship  casts  anchor.  Those 
not  paying  their  passage  are  advertised  in  the  newspapers 
for  sale.  Unmarried  people  of  both  sexes  find  ready  buy- 
ers. Old  married  people,  widows  and  the  feeble,  are  a  drug 
on  the  market,  unless  they  have  healthy  children  who  as- 
sume the  debts  of  the  parents,  which  extends  the  period  of 
their  servitude.  But  "the  sick  are  frequently  detained 
beyond  the  period  of  recovery,  when  a  release  would  fre- 
quently have  saved  them."^^  When  land  is  sighted  the 
wretches  crowd  the  deck  and  weep  and  sing  and  pray  and 
praise  God.  But  the  rejoicings  soon  cease  and  give  way 
to  cries  of  despair  because  "parents  must  sell  and  trade 
away  their  children  like  so  many  cattle."^*  Batches  of 
twenty-five  and  fifty  are  purchased  by  the  hated  "soul  driv- 
ers" and  retailed  to  wealthy  farmers.  This  auction  of 
white  flesh  is  a  common  occurrence  in  Philadelphia  and 
excites  no  more  comment  than  the  sale  of  hogs. 

To  see  loved  ones  sold  with  the  possibility  of  never 
seeing  them  again  was  dreadful ;  but  to  remain  in  the 
clutches  of  the  slavers  seemed  a  worse  evil  than  to  be  sold. 
To  escape  the  ship  captain  and  forget  the  tragedies  of  the 
voyage  was  the  consuming  desire  of  the  victims.  In  fact, 
many  felt  disappointed  if  not  purchased.     William  Eddis, 


22Geiser,  p.  60. 

23Faust,   "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I,  pp. 
66-67. 

24Geiser,  "Redemptioners,"  p.  52. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  85 

an  English  traveler  who  boarded  a  white  slave  ship  in 
Philadelphia  forty-one  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  (1817),  describes  an  incident  of 
this  kind.  "As  we  ascended  the  side  of  the  hulk,"  he  writes, 
"a  most  revolting  scene  of  want  and  misery  presented  itself. 
The  eye  involuntarily  turned  for  some  relief  from  the  hor- 
rible picture  of  human  suffering  which  this  living  sepulchre 
aftorded.  Mr enquired  if  there  were  any  shoemak- 
ers on  board.  The  captain  advanced;  his  appearance  be- 
spoke his  office,  he  was  an  American,  tall,  determined,  and 
with  an  eye  that  flashed  with  Algerine  cruelty.  He  called  in 
the  Dutch  language  for  shoemakers,  and  never  can  I  forget 
the  scene  which  followed.  The  poor  fellows  came  running 
tip  zvith  unspeakable  delight,  no  doubt  anticipating  a  relief 
from  their  loathsome  dungeon.  Their  clothes,  if  rags  de- 
serve that  denomination,  actually  perfumed  the  air.  Some 
were  without  shirts,  others  had  this  article  of  dress,  but  of 
a  quality  as  coarse  as  the  worst  packing  cloth.  . 
When  they  saw  at  our  departure  that  we  had  not  purchased, 
their  countenances  fell  to  that  standard  of  stupid  gloom 
which  seemed  to  place  them  a  link  below  rational  beings."^° 
As  though  the  frightful  conditions  of  the  voyage  were 
not  sufficient  to  break  the  spirit  of  the  victims  of  the  slave 
trade,  corporal  punishment  was  administered  for  many  of- 
fenses. Just  how  widespread  this  practice  was  cannot  be 
determined  with  certainty,  but  that  it  prevailed  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  John  Harrower,  a  redemptioner,  kept  a  diary 
from  1773  to  1776.  He  relates,  among  other  things,  the 
experience  of  a  servant,  Daniel  Turner,  who  returned  to  the 
ship  drunk,  and  for  using  abusive  language  toward  two 
officers  he  was  horsewhipped,   "put  in   irons  and  thumb- 


25Quoted  by  Geiser.  p.  57. 


86  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

screwed."  One  hour  later  he  was  released  from  the  screws, 
taken  out  of  the  irons  and  bound  and  gagged  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  night.-'' 

The  diseases  contracted  on  the  voyage  by  those  whose 
destination  was  Philadelphia  alarmed  the  inhabitants  of 
that  city.  On  the  recommendation  of  Governor  Thomas 
of  Pennsylvania  in  1742,  an  act  was  passed  providing  for 
the  purchase  of  a  site  for  a  pest-house.  Laws  had  been 
passed  at  an  earlier  period  prohibiting  the  landing  of  con- 
victs, lunatics  and  those  infected  with  contagious  diseases, 
but  ship  captains  managed  to  smuggle  these  classes  ashore 
during  the  night.  Ship  masters  also  acquired  the  habit  of 
confiscating  the  property  of  the  dead. 

,  The  pest-house  law  remained  a  dead  letter,  for  seven 
years  later  a  petition  is  presented  to  the  assembly  asserting, 
among  other  things,  "that  for  want  of  suitable  buildings 
and  other  conveniences,  the  sick  had  been  induced  to  wan- 
der from  one  place  to  another,  without  care,  and  to  the 
manifest  danger  of  the  inhabitants."  From  this  we  would 
judge  that  the  "grafters  in  high  places"  were  still  on  good 
terms  with  the  slavers  and  shared  in  the  latter's  spoils. 
More  acts  were  passed,  but  were  easily  evaded  or  not  en- 
forced. 'Tn  the  act  of  1749,  for  example,  which  was  pri- 
marily intended  to  prevent  the  importation  of  passengers 
in  too  great  numbers  in  a  single  vessel  by  specifying  the 
space  that  each  passenger  should  have,  no  provision  was 
made  for  the  height  of  each  berth.  Vessels  zvere  still 
crowded  as  much  as  before  the  act  was  passed.  To  comply 
with  the  two  dimensions  specified  by  law,  the  berths  were 
so  constructed  as  to  reduce  the  former  height,  thus  giving 


26"Documentary  History   of  American  Industrial  Society,"   Vol.   I, 
368. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  87 

no  increase  in  the  number  of  cubic  feet  per  capita.  On  the 
whole  the  conditions  through  the  middle  of  the  century 
were  bad.  The  increase  of  immigration  brought  with  it  an 
increase  of  disorder.  The  sick  were  neglected;  contracts 
made  in  Europe  betiveen  importers  and  passengers  zvere 
disregarded;  immigrants  zvere  sold  into  service  to  pay  the 
fare  of  friends  or  relatives  ivho  had  died  on  the  journey; 
husband,  zuife  and  children  zvere  still  separated  by  being 
sold  to  different  masters:  passengers  zvere  robbed  of  their 
baggage  on  landing,  and  held  and  treated  as  prisoners  until 
sold."^' 

As  stated  in  a  previous  chapter  the  Revolution  brougnt 
few  changes  in  legislation  to  improve  the  lot  of  imported 
servants  and,  in  Pennsylvania,  "not  until  a  law  was  passed 
preventing  imprisonment  for  debt  did  the  merchants  and 
importers  lose  their  grip  on  this  most  lucrative  traffic."-^ 
And  improved  conditions  in  debtors'  prisons  did  not  take 
place  till  1814.  A  law  of  Pennsylvania  in  1794,  passed 
ostensibly  to  provide  food,  clothing  and  shelter  to  the  poor 
in  the  debtors'  prison  in  Philadelphia,  granted  only  seven 
cents  a  day  for  food  for  each  prisoner  !^® 

Such  was  the  white  slave  trade  to  America  from  the 
earliest  days  of  colonization  down  to  a  period  which  closed 
with  the  election  of  the  seventh  president  of  the  United 
States.  Only  the  superiority  of  the  negro  as  an  agricul- 
tural slave  and  the  gradual  cheapening  of  wage  labor  finally 
put  an  end  to  indentured  servitude  and  the  slave  traffic 
based  upon  it.  One  may  search  the  resolutions,  platforms, 
or  declarations  of  the  Federalist  and  anti-Federalist  or  other 


27Geiser,   "Redemptioners,"  p.  64. 
28Ibid,  p.  70. 

2nMcMaster,  "The  Acfiuisition  of  the  Political,  Social  and  Industrial 
Rights  of  Man  in  America,"  p.  51. 


88  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

parties  down  to  the  administration  of  President  Jackson, 
when  the  system  of  indentured  service  finally  disappeared, 
at  least  in  the  North,  and  he  will  look  in  vain  for  any  de- 
nunciation of  the  atrocities  reviewed  in  this  chapter  and  the 
one  preceding  it.  Only  one  party  even  mentioned  it.  This 
was  a  remnant  of  the  almost  dead  Federalist  party  of  Wash- 
ington and  Adams,  which  met  in  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in 
December,  1814.  Among  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
convention  is  a  demand  for  a  constitutional  amendment 
providing  that  "Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be 
apportioned  among  the  several  states  which  may  be  included 
in  this  Union,  according  to  their  respective  numbers  of  free 
persons,  including  those  bound  to  serve  for  a  term  of  years 
and  excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  and  all  other  persons."'" 

Like  the  aristocrats  who  met  in  the  constitutional  con- 
vention twenty-seven  years  before,  these  gentlemen  re- 
garded the  white  slaves  only  as  living  merchandise  to  esti- 
mate the  share  of  political  power  to  be  apportioned  among 
the  property  owners  of  that  time.  For  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  property  qualifications  for  the  suffrage  in  the 
states  excluded  the  mass  of  workers  from  the  privilege  of 
voting. 

But  the  system  did  not  entirely  disappear  at  this  time. 
Peonage  or  the  debt  system  of  servitude  still  prevailing  in 
some  of  the  Southern  states  is  one  heritage  of  it.  As  we 
shall  see  later,  it  was  also  resorted  to  in  many  of  the  Cen- 
tral States  almost  to  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  by  owners 
of  negroes  to  avoid  coming  in  conflict  with  the  federal  pro- 
hibition of  slavery  in  that  section.  In  some  of  the  Southern 
states    it    existed    with    scarcely    any   modifications    at    all 


:!ORaynolds,  "National  Platforms  and  Political  History,"  p.  12,  Chi- 
cago, 1896. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  89 

down  to  the  rebellion.  In  many  of  the  Northern  states  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley  the  indentured  codes  were  drawn 
upon  as  models  for  selling  various  offenders  for  limited 
terms  of  servitude  when  they  were  unable  to  pay  lines. 

When  William  Henry  Harrison  was  a  candidate  for 
President  in  1840,  his  opponents  published  broadcast  his 
action  in  1807  when  as  Governor  of  Indiana  Territory,  he 
approved  the  act  of  that  year  which  provided  for  the  sale 
of  those  unable  to  pay  fines  or  the  costs  of  suits  at  law. 
Also  when  a  member  of  the  Ohio  legislature  in  1821  he 
voted  for  an  act,  one  section  of  which  provided  that  "when 
any  person  shall  be  imprisoned,  either  upon  execution  or 
otherwise,  for  non-payment  of  a  fine  or  costs,  or  both,  it 
shall  be  lawful  for  the  Sheriff  of  the  county  to  sell  out 
such  person  as  a  servant  to  any  person  within  this  State, 
who  will  pay  the  whole  amount  due,  for  the  shortest  period 
of  service."^^ 

In  Georgia  a  code  was  compiled  by  Howell  Cobb  and 
adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  in  1859.  The  section  on 
Indentured  Servants  was,  according  to  its  preamble,  to 
settle  the  question  as  to  whether  contracts  signed  in  Euro- 
pean countries  would  be  recognized  as  binding  in  Georgia 
when  presented  by  masters  or  ship  captains  having  a 
batch  of  servants  for  sale.  The  act  provided  that  the  terms 
and  conditions  of  such  indentures  should  be  recognized 
and  fulfilled  under  Georgia  laws.  Should  a  servant  fail 
to  carry  out  the  contract  the  master  could  bring  him  before 
any  three  justices  of  a  county  who  decided  the  issue  and 
had  power  to  bind  the  servant.  The  justices  were  empow- 
ered to  decide  the  ages  of    the    servants    brought    before 


3iMcMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  VI, 
p.  574. 


yO  THE    WORKERS    IX    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

them  and  the  terms  they  were  to  serve.  The  act  further 
provided  for  the  care  of  servants,  against  immoderate  cor- 
rection, and  cautioned  against  zvhipping  them  naked  until 
master  and  servant  had  been  heard  by  the  justices.  Serv- 
ants could  make  complaint  of  ill-treatment  before  any 
justice  who,  "if  he  finds  cause,"  may  bind  the  master  over 
until  the  complaint  is  heard  before  the  Inferior  Court.  The 
court  was  given  discretion  to  "adjudge,  order  and  appoint 
what  shall  be  necessary  and  proper,  as  well  with  respect  to 
the  diet,  lodging,  clothing  and  excessive  labor,  as  to  the 
correction  of  the  servant  or  servants,  complaining."  If  the 
court  or  the  three  justices  decided  that  a  servant's  com- 
plaint was  unfounded  the  "moderate  punishment"  of  thirty- 
nine  lashes  was  ordered  by  the  court.  Should  the  servant 
absent  himself  from  his  owner's  service,  the  court  was  au- 
thorized to  bind  the  servant  "for  such  absence,  a  term,  not 
exceeding  four  days  for  every  day's  absence,  more  than  the 
time  he  or  she  were  originally  indented  for,  by  an  order, 
entered  as  aforesaid,  on  the  court  books." 

It  is  clear  enough  that  the  negro  slave  had  every  real 
advantage  of  his  white  brother  in  servitude,  except  in  the 
duration  of  servitude.  And  even  as  to  the  duration  of 
servitude  the  law  itself,  as  it  must  have  been  administered 
by  the  class  in  power,  contained  no  substantial  guarantee 
for  the  servant.  One  section  provides  what  might  virtually 
lead  to  the  quadrupling  and  indefinite  extension  of  the  term 
of  service.  Any  poor  alien,  independent  of  whether  he  had 
paid  his  passage  or  promised  to  indent  himself,  could  be 
very  easily,  and  doubtless  often  was,  enslaved  by  the  ship's 
master  upon  arrival,  and  sold  to  some  planter.  The  naked 
word  of  the  friendless  and  penniless  alien  could  not  have 
gone  far  against  the  word  of  a  jolly,  sociable  ship  captain 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  9I 

in  a  court  composed  of  planter  squires,  themselves  always 
in  the  market  for  cheap  human  flesh,  and  themselves  often 
the  convivial  chums  and  hosts  of  the  jolly  captain  himself, 
when  he  chanced  into  a  Georgia  port.  The  whole  act, 
looked  at  from  the  servant's  point  of  view,  is  full  of  what 
we  moderns  call  "jokers." 

The  servant  who  haled  his  master  into  court  for 
redress  of  any  grievance,  was  certain  to  have  wound  up 
with  the  statutory  "thirty-nine  lashes,"  except  in  such  rare 
cases  as  that  of  an  extremely  unpopular  master.  Any  one 
who  knows  anything  of  human  nature  and  of  the  relative 
influence  of  landed  and  powerful  landed  gentry  on  one 
hand,  and  of  ignorant,  penniless  aliens  on  the  other,  with 
the  magistrates  empowered  to  construe  this  act  and  the 
contracts,  or  pretended  contracts,  named,  must  know  that 
this  act  opened  the  doors  of  Georgia  to  a  most  aggravated 
species  of  piracy  in  the  bodies  of  men  and  women,  to  con- 
tinue as  long  as  there  was  any  profit  in  the  purchase  of 
such  labor  on  this  side  of  the  sea.^^ 

In  the  states  north  of  Georgia  the  system  assumed 
various  guises.  A  traveler  in  1819-20  mentions  an  adver- 
tisement in  the  "Aurora,"  of  Philadelphia,  issue  of  March 
25,  1820,  in  which  blacks  are  listed  for  sale,  together  with 
white  boys  and  girls  whose  ages  ranged  from  eight  to  thir- 
teen years. ^^  Another  traveler  in  Ohio  about  the  same  time 
mentions  children  of  poor  families  who  are  bound  out  to 
employers ;  boys  to  the  age  of  twenty-one,    and    girls    to 


321  wish  to  express  my  indebtedness  to  Mr.  C.  D.  Rivers  of  Sum- 
merville,  Georgia,  for  the  text  of  this  Georgia  code.  The  comment  and 
analysis  of  its  provisions  are  also  his  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
slight  changes  that  I  have  made. 

3.'!Welby,  "English  Settlements,"  in  Early  Western  Travels,  edited 
by  Reuben  Gold  Thwaites,   Vol.   XII,   p.   306. 


92  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

eighteen.-'*  Writing  from  Jeffersonville,  Indiana,  in  1819, 
he  observes  that  "Runaway  apprentices,  slaves  and  wives 
are  frequently  advertised.""'  The  constitutional  convention 
of  Virginia,  which  met  in  1829,  based  the  suffrage  on  prop- 
erty qualilications,  and  apportioned  representatives  in  Con- 
gress according  to  population  defined  as  all  free  persons, 
including  those  bound  to  service,  and  three-fifths  of  the 
slaves.^"  A  decade  before  this  period  Virginia  hired  out 
vagrants  for  the  best  terms  that  could  be  secured,  and  those 
who  ran  away  were  dealt  with  as  runaway  servants.  In 
Georgia  and  Alabama  vagabonds  and  disorderly  persons 
were  sold,  or  if  a  buyer  was  not  found,  they  were  whipped. 
Louisiana  imprisoned  vagrants  from  six  months  to  three 
years  or  the  sheriffs  bound  them  out  for  like  terms.  Mis- 
souri sold  them  for  six  months  at  public  auction.^'  In 
Maryland  those  unable  to  pay  fines  were  held  thirty  days 
in  jail,  and  if,  during  that  time,  security  for  payment  of 
the  fine  within  six  months  was  not  provided,  the  sheriff  sold 
the  prisoner  at  auction  for  a  term  not  exceeding  one  year. 
This  act  also  became  a  law  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
was  still  in  force  in  1840.^^  Poverty  was  still  a  crime  in 
most  of  the  states,  and  our  early  "statesmen"  transformed 
its  victims  into  private  convicts  for  budding  capitalists. 

A  curious  by-product  of  indentured  servitude  was  the 
adoption  of  the  s)'stem  by  slave  owners  in  the  territory  north- 
west of  the  River  Ohio.  The  Ordinance  of  1787  providing 
for  the  government  of  this  territory  was,  as  stated  in  an- 


34Flint,  "Letters  From  America."  Elar.  West.  Trav.,  Vol.  IX,  p.  123. 
aslbid,   p.  167. 

38McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  V, 
p.   393. 

STMcMaster,  Ibid,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  582-83. 
«8lbld. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  93 

Other  chapter,  "tlie  first  great  land  job  of  the  Republic."'" 
Article  \'I  of  the  Ordinance  provided  that  "There  shall  be 
neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  terri- 
tory." Among  the  first  laws  adopted  by  the  government 
of  the  Northwest  Territory  was  one  providing  that  when 
certain  offenders  were  unable  to  pay  fines  the  sheriff,  by 
direction  of  the  court,  could  bind  such  offenders  to  labor 
for  a  term  not  exceeding  seven  years,  to  any  person  who 
would  pay  the  fine.*" 

But  this  bore  on  workers  regardless  of  their  color. 
While  Indiana  was  a  part  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  three 
attempts  were  made  to  repeal  the  sixth  Article  of  the  Or- 
dinance. On  January  12,  1796,  Illinois  slave  owners 
adopted  a  petition  urging  Congress  to  repeal  or  modify  the 
Article,  stating  as  their  reasons  that  it  was  retroactive  and 
contrary  to  "a  fundamental  principle  of  natural  justice;" 
that  wage  labor  was  too  costly  and  "hands"  were  not  abun- 
dant enough  to  supply  the  demand.  Throwing  reason  and 
logic  to  the  winds  they  even  asked,  if  Congress  denied  the 
petition,  that  Congress  declare  that  the  Article  meant  that 
when  slaves  are  imported  into  the  territory  they  became 
free,  "but  were  still  bound  to  serve  their  owners  for  life  !"*^ 

Wh.-r  Indiana  became  a  territory  the  legislature  in 
1805  passed  a  measure  for  introducing  slavery  by  indenture 
by  permitting  slaves  over  fifteen  years  of  age  to  be  im- 
ported and  to  sign  contracts  for  service  to  masters  within 
thirty  days.  Provisions  were  also  made  for  holding  the 
children  of  slaves  by  indentures,  and  by  this  system  slaves 


39See  Poole,  "Dr.  Cutler  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787."  in  North 
American  Review,  April,  1876.  This  article  is  generally  conceded  to 
be  the  most  accurate  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Ordinance. 

40Dillon,   "History  of  Indiana,"   p.   234. 

4iDunn,  "Indiana,  A  Redemption  From  Slavery,"  pp.  285-286. 


94  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

were  held  for  many  years  after  Indiana  became  a  state.*^ 
In  1806  the  legislature  enacted  that  the  time  of  service  of 
indented  slaves  could  be  levied  upon  and  sold  as  personal 
property.  Police  regulations  were  also  enacted  that  re- 
sembled the  slave  codes  of  Virginia  and  other  Southern 
states.*^  The  struggle  between  those  who  opposed  and 
those  who  favored  indenturing  negroes  was  a  constant 
issue  in  the  politics  of  Indiana,  and  by  1830  there  were  four 
more  slaves  in  the  one  town  of  Vincennes  than  in  all  In- 
diana in  1800!  During  all  this  time  there  was  no  efifort 
in  Congress  to  nullify  the  indenture  laws  or  to  enforce 
Article  VI." 

Illinois  repeated  the  same  experience  and  had  the  same 
struggles.  Most  of  the  settlers  "purchased  slaves  when 
very  young  in  order  to  secure  the  longest  legal  terms  of 
service.  Not  satisfied  with  that,  they  registered  them  for 
periods  of  servitude  far  in  excess  of  the  legal  limit,  many 
being  booked  to  serve  from  forty  to  sixty,  and  even  ninety- 
nine  years."*^  Long  after  the  adoption  of  the  Illinois  con- 
stitution in  1818  blacks  were  held  in  servitude  and  bills  of 
sale  are  still  preserved  dated  as  late  as  1848.*® 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  courts  handed  down  many 
"learned"  opinions  upholding  the  violation  of  Article  VI. 
In  this  way  indentured  servitude  served  as  an  agreeable 
substitute  for  chattel  slavery.  The  collar  that  held  the 
white  thrall   for  several   centuries   in  America  was  trans- 


42lbid,   pp.   329-330. 

43lbid,  p.  349. 

44lbid,   Chap.   XII. 
4.=)Harris,   "Negro  Servitude  in  Illinois,"   p.   11. 

46lbid,  p.  52.  See  also  Parrish,  "Historic  Illinois,"  Chap.  XXII,  and 
Turner,  "Rise  of  the  New  West,"  p.  150.  Slave  owners  in  Texas, 
while  that  state  was  under  Mexican  rule,  followed  the  same  method  in 
evading  a  law  of  Mexico  forbidding  slavery.  Negroes  were  often  bound 
to  serve  99  vears. — "Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial  So- 
ciety," Vol.  II,  p.  251. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  95 

ferred  to  the  necks  of  the  blacks  in  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
and  was  worn  by  them  down  to  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  in  violation  of  the  plainest  provision  of  a  Federal 
organic  law.  There  is  nothing  strange  about  it,  as  the  sys- 
tem served  the  interests  of  the  classes  who  profited  by  it, 
and  they  took  care,  as  a  ruling  class  always  has,  to  see  that 
all  the  governing  machinery  was  in  their  hands  and  that 
laws  were  enforced,  ignored  or  interpreted  according  to 
their  will. 


X 


96  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Chapter   V 

Rebellions  of  the  Poor 


It  need  occasion  no  surprise  if  the  economic,  social 
and  political  status  of  the  working  people  in  our  early  his- 
tory provoked  revolts  of  both  individuals  and  masses  of  the 
poor.  Their  lot  on  the  whole  was  a  desperate  one,  and 
though  rebellion  generally  brought  savage  retaliation,  this 
knowledge  did  not  deter  them  from  hazarding  an  occa- 
sional blow  at  their  exploiters.  Deprived  of  education  and 
lacking  knowledge  of  the  powers  they  had  to  contend  with, 
these  revolts "  were  generally  ineffective  in  securing  any 
changes  for  the  better  until  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  rebellions  included  all  classes  of  workers, 
such  as  the  indentured  servants,  the  redemptioners,  the 
black  slaves,  the  so-called  "free  laborers,"  poor  farmers 
and,  in  some  cases,  small  shop  keepers  and  petty  trades- 
men who  felt  the  heavy  burden  of  taxation  imposed  by 
grafting  colonial  governors  and  their  fellow  pilferers. 
Where  masses  of  these  rebelled  they  always  lacked  any 
definite  plan  of  action.  They  were  blind  uprisings  striking 
against  economic,  political  and  social  rulers  and  the  latter, 
possessing  the  coercive  powers  of  government,  were  able  to 
suppress  them. 

The  intolerable  conditions  of  the  blacks  provoked  at 
least  twenty-five  rebellions  of  these  slaves  in  the  United 
States  before  the  American  Revolution.  The  fear  of  these 
slave  insurrections  gave  rise  to  the  atrocious  slave  codes 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  97 

of  the  Southern  states.  Rebellions  on  the  slave  ships  were 
put  down  by  applying  the  thumb-screws,  chaining  slaves 
together,  or  shooting  down  the  leaders  and  casting  the  dead 
into  the  sea.  To  reduce  the  danger  of  revolts  slaves  were 
generally  prohibited  from  meeting  together  without  a  white 
man  being  present,  or  to  leave  the  plantation  without  a 
permit.  A  free  man  could  lash  disobedient  slaves  and 
could  kill  them  if  they  struck  in  self-defense.  To  take  the 
life  of  a  slave  was  no  crime.  Some  offenses  were  puni.shed 
by  cropping  the  ears  or  branding  the  cheek ;  cutting  off  the 
right  hand,  severing  the  head  from  the  trunk,  dismem- 
bering the  body  and  hanging  the  pieces  up  to  public  view.^ 
One  rebellious  slave  in  the  Bermudas  had  his  right  hand 
chopped  off  at  the  wrist  and  the  bleeding  stump  thrust 
into  boiling  pitch.  After  suffering  excruciating  agony  he 
was  immersed  and  burned  to  death. 

During  Governor  Hunter's  administration  of  New 
York  in  1712,  a  party  of  negroes,  armed  with  guns,  knives 
and  hatchets,  fired  a  building  and  shot  and  slashed  those 
who  ran  to  the  spot.  Soldiers  captured  the  slaves  and 
twenty-one  were  executed.  "One  was  broken  on  the  wheel, 
and  several  were  burned  alive  at  the  stake,  while  the  rest 
were  hanged."^  In  1774  a  revolt  in  Georgia  was  sup- 
pressed and  two  leaders  burned  at  the  stake  after  having 
murdered  four  and  injured  as  many  more.  About  one 
thousand  blacks  revolted  in  Virginia  in  1800  and  marched 
on  the  city  of  Richmond.  A  swollen  stream  interfered 
with  their  march ;  the  leaders  were  captured  and  executed. 
The  rebellion,  under  the  leadership  of  Nat  Turner,  in  the 
same  state  in  183 1,  terrorized  the  haughty  planters.    Local 


iMcMaster,   "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  IT, 
p.  19. 

2Fiske,  "Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,"  Vol.  II,  p.  288. 

7 


98  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

militia  co-operating  with  United  States  troops  crushed  the 
uprising  after  the  blacks  had  killed  sixty  white  people. 
Twleve  of  them  were  sold  out  of  the  state  and  twenty, 
including  Turner,  were  hanged. 

In     1792     the     slave     insurrection     under     Toussaint 

L'Ouverture  took  place  in  St.  Domingo.  As  this  rebellion 
was  the  most  notable  one  of  the  blacks  and  had  consider- 
able influence  on  the  agitation  against  slavery,  we  will 
notice  it  here.  The  island  had  a  population  of  30,000 
whites,  30,000  mulattoes,  and  500,000  slaves.  Sugar  culture 
killed  the  slaves  off  so  rapidly  that  25,000  negroes  were 
imported  annually.  The  mulattoes  were  children  of  the 
slave  owners  and  their  fathers,  as  a  rule,  did  not  forget 
them  because  their  mothers  were  slaves.  The  mulattoes 
were  given  everything  but  their  fathers'  names ;  given 
wealth,  plantations,  slaves  and  many  of  them  were  even 
sent  to  Paris  to  acquire  an  education.  But  these  mulattoes 
were  politically  and  socially  ostracised. 

St.  Domingo  was  a  colony  of  France.  When  the  Rev- 
olution broke  in  that  country  and  the  words  "liberty,  equal- 
ity and  fraternity"  floated  across  the  seas,  the  white  masters 
heard  them  with  fear,  the  mulattoes  with  joy  and  the  blacks 
with  indifference.  The  mulattoes  pledged  their  support 
to  the  Revolution  and  sent  6,000,000  frances.  The  French 
national  assembly  issued  a  decree  proclaiming  that  all  "free 
born  citizens  are  free  before  the  law,"  and  sent  a  repre- 
sentative to  the  island  with  the  message.  The  white  slave 
holders  possessing  the  political  power,  laid  the  message  on 
the  table,  broke  the  body  of  the  Frenchman  on  the  wheel 
arid  ordered  the  four  quarters  of  his  body  hung  up  in  four 
of  the  principal  cities. 

This  led  to  the  insurrection  under  the  leadership  of 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  99 

Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  a  black  negro  born  in  slavery  and 
by  Wendell  Phillips  credited  with  being  the  noblest  of  his 
race.  He  displayed  a  generosity,  courage  and  military 
genius  that  astounded  the  whites,  and  the  rebellion  lasted 
more  than  ten  years.  Toussaint  proclaimed  religious  free- 
dom for  all  and  preserved  the  property  of  the  whites,  who 
left  the  island,  and  gave  it  back  to  them  on  their  return. 
But  that  "personification  of  national  murder,"  Napoleon 
the  Great,  was  thrown  to  the  surface  by  the  froth  of  the 
French  Revolution  and  sent  an  army  to  suppress  the  blacks 
and  reduce  them  to  slavery.  The  island  was  laid  waste  with 
sword  and  fire,  but  the  French  were  forced  to  employ  bribery 
and  treachery  to  subdue  the  blacks.  Toussaint  was  betrayed, 
sent  to  France,  starved  to  death  in  an  icy  tomb  by  Napoleon 
and  after  unspeakable  butchery  of  the  blacks  they  were 
again  enslaved.^  The  insurrection  terrorized  the  slave 
holders  of  America  and  supplied  a  convenient  argument 
against  the  advocates  of  emancipation. 

In  Virginia  the  convicts  transported  to  that  colony  were 
chiefly  political  offenders ;  the  number  of  common  criminals 
was  never  large.  Among  these  were  those  who  were  driven 
to  petty  crimes  of  poverty.  In  1663  an  insurrection  was 
plotted  by  white  slaves  who  felt  their  sufferings  keenly  and 
the  insolence  of  the  towering  planters  was  not  calculated  to 
reconcile  them  to  their  hard  lot.  However,  they  formed  no 
definite  plans  for  their  revolt  which  was  easily  suppressed.* 

An  act  of  the  Assembly  in  1640  held  every  master  of  a 
family  responsible  for  each  of  its  members'  military  service, 
the  family  including  servants  but  not  blacks.     Each  white 


sThis  uprising  gave  Wendell  Phillips  a  theme  for  one  of  his  most 
powerful  orations.  The  address  is  printed  in  the  first  volume  of  his 
"Speeches,  Lectures  and  Addresses,"  Lee  and  Shepard,  Boston,  1902. 

4Bancroft,   "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  192-193. 


lOO  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

slave  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  he  would  be  free 
and  had  not  the  same  temptation  to  rebel  as  the  blacks.  The 
latter  were  naturally  immune  from  military  service  as  they 
might  turn  their  experience  to  use  for  their  own  account. 

As  servants  increased  in  number  the  fear  of  white  re- 
bellions increased  so  that  by  1672  only  such  indentured 
whites  were  admitted  to  military  duty  whose  terms  had 
nearly  expired,  the  masters  reasoning  that  whites  whose 
terms  would  soon  expire  would  not  hazard  their  future  by 
giving  support  to  any  revolts.  When  Governor  Nicholson 
proposed  in  1699  that  all  agricultural  servants  should  be 
taught  to  bear  arms  the  House  of  Burgesses  replied  that  it 
would  be  a  hardship  to  the  planters  to  have  their  servants 
subject  to  the  call  of  militia  officers,  especially  at  times  when 
they  were  sorely  needed  in  the  tobacco  fields  and  that  the 
policy  was  a  dangerous  one.  "The  Burgesses  closed  with  the 
statement  that  it  was  difficult  to  control  their  white  laborers 
when  unarmed ;  and  that,  if  they  were  armed  and  permitted 
to  attend  musters,  they  might  be  tempted  to  seek  to  obtain 
their  freedom  by  slaying  their  masters."^ 

Throughout  the  colonial  period  this  fear  of  an  uprising 
of  the  servile  whites  was  a  source  of  uneasiness  to  the  ruling 
class.  Fear  of  foreign  invasion  always  aroused  appre- 
hension that  the  enslaved  whites  would  rise  and  strike  a 
blow  for  their  own  freedom  during  an  invasion. 

The  servants  at  this  period  numbered  as  many  as  the 
freemen  while  many  of  the  poorer  classes  of  freemen  "were 
heavily  burdened  with  debt  contracted  in  the  effort  to  earn 


oBruce,  "Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  Vol.  11,  p.  7. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  lOI 

a  livelihood  by  cultivating  tobacco  on  a  poor  soil.""  Should 
these  two  elements  join  in  a  rebellion  at  such  a  moment 
the  consequences  for  the  aristocracy  would  not  be  pleasant 
to  contemplate. 

In  this  colony  a  rebellion  of  poor  whites  took  place  in 
1676  that  startled  the  planter  aristocracy.  Roughly  speaking 
there  were  four  classes  in  the  colony ;  the  great  planters  be- 
low tidewater  on  the  main  rivers,  who  lived  in  luxury  and 
possessed  the  governing  power ;  the  middle  class  of  small 
planters  and  farmers  who  aped  the  manners  of  the  ruling 
class ;  the  poor  whites  and  indentured  slaves,  and  the  blacks. 
The  frontier  was  peopled  by  the  poorer  classes  of  farmers 
and  frequent  Indian  raids  had  destroyed  crops  and  many 
families  were  massacred.  The  terrible  massacres  in  which 
the  outlying  settlements  suffered  most  in  1622  and  1644 
were  still  remembered  with  terror  by  the  settlers.  Appeals 
for  protection  repeatedly  made  to  Governor  Berkeley,  one  of 
the  many  colonial  grafters  of  that  time,  met  with  little 
encouragement.  Berkeley  was  interested  in  the  fur  trade 
with  the  Indians,  who  were  making  war  on  the  settlers,  and 
to  recruit  sufficient  militia  to  protect  the  latter  would  have 
endangered  Berkeley's  profits  in  the  traffic.  This  was  one 
powerful  grievance  that  led  to  what  has  come  to  be  known 
as  "Bacon's  Rebellion." 

But  there  were  other  long-standing  grievances.  One 
was  the  Long  Assembly,  which  remained  in  session  fourteen 
years  without  a  single  dissolution,  and  became  callous,  cor- 


elbid,  Vol.  II,  p.  200.  The  novel  of  Mary  Johnson,  "Prisoners  of 
Hope,"  is  a  tale  of  colonial  Virginia  and  deserves  to  rank  high  as  a 
faithful  picture  of  the  life  of  the  white  servants  and  the  aristocratic 
society  built  upon  their  labor.  The  terror  of  the  ruling  families  over 
an  impending  revolt  of  the  convicts,  Oliverians,  indented  servants,  and 
redemptioners  is  also  drawn  with  power.  The  novel  is  a  better  his- 
tory of  the  life  and  institutions  of  the  time  than  many  histories  that 
Include  Virginia. 


102  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

rupt  and  insolent  in  the  exercise  of  its  power.  One  writer 
asserts  that  "The  series  of  wrongful  acts  leading  up  to  the 
rebellion  of  1676  were  among  the  most  exasperating  that 
any  section  of  the  American  people  have  ever  been  called 
upon  to  endure  for  the  same  length  of  time.  Restrictive 
navigation  laws;  measures  for  affording  Burgesses  very 
high  remuneration  without  relieving  the  counties  of  addi- 
tional expense  on  that  score;  the  continuation  of  the  same 
Assembly  for  fourteen  years  because  Berkeley  had  found  its 
members  to  be  submissive  and  ready  instruments  for  his 
purposes;  the  concentration  of  all  the  offices  and  all  the 
power  in  the  hands  of  a  few  possessing  no  legal  claim  to 
such  privileges;  the  persecution  of  religious  sects;  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  whole  community,  threatened  with  Indian 
invasion,  to  the  interests  of  the  Governor  in  the  fur  trade, 
a  trade  which  would  have  been  destroyed  by  a  vigorous 
campaign  against  the  savages,"^  all  these  grievances  had 
been  accumulating  for  years. 

The  Assembly  that  met  in  1662  was  a  self -perpetuating 
one,  being  prorogued  from  session  to  session,  until  it  sat 
for  fourteen  years.  The  counties  were  burdened  with 
enormous  taxation  to  pay  the  excessive  salaries  which  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  voted  to  themselves.  This  op- 
pression spread  through  the  whole  framework  of  Virginia 
society  and  won  for  the  haughty  aristocracy  the  deep  hatred 
of  nearly  all  classes  below  it.  The  revolt  which  followed 
the  Indian  raids  would  have  culminated  without  them  in 
time.^  In  1670  increased  property  qualifications  for  the 
franchise  increased  the  discontent  among  the  poorer  classes. 
All  these  factors  contributed  to  what  has  come  to  be  known 
as  "Bacon's  Rebellion." 


TBruce,    "Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  "Vol.  II,  p.   264. 
sibid,  p.  493. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  IO3 

Nathaniel  Bacon  was  a  young  man  of  28  and  a  de- 
scendant of  the  great  Lord  Bacon.  He  was  a  land  owner, 
a  member  of  the  council,  a  pursuasive  speaker  and  sympa- 
thetic with  the  struggles  of  the  poor.  His  land  was  in  the 
zone  of  the  warring  Indians  and  he  asked  for  a  commission 
against  them.  Governor  Berkeley  refused  the  commission, 
for  to  grant  it  would  have  been  a  confession  of  weakness 
and  error  of  judgment  that  would  have  increased  the  con- 
tempt in  which  he  was  held.  Receiving  the  Governor's 
evasive  answer,  Bacon  took  the  field  at  the  head  of  the  dis- 
tressed settlers.  Having  defeated  the  Indians  he  was 
arrested  on  his  return  to  Jamestown,  but  after  giving  prom- 
ise of  good  behaviour,  was  released. 

In  the  elections  to  the  House  of  Burgesses  which 
shortly  followed,  many  ignored  the  property  qualifications 
and  voted.  Bacon  was  unanimously  elected  a  burgess  from 
his  county,  and  the  Assembly  elected  Thomas  Godwin  as 
Speaker,  who  was  regarded  by  the  aristocracy  as  a  friend  of 
the  "rebellion  and  treason  which  distracted  Virginia." 
Bacon  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  and 
the  town  was  boisterous  with  joy  over  the  event.  Under 
his  leadership  the  house  restored  the  old  basis  for  the  suf- 
frage, some  trade  monopolies  were  overthrown,  two  magis- 
trates were  disfranchised  for  misconduct  in  office,  false 
returns  of  sheriffs  were  guarded  against,  the  powers  of  the 
church  aristocracy  were  limited,  and  some  of  the  governor's 
fees  curtailed.  These  measures  bore  the  stamp  of  Bacon's 
popular  principles  and  were  enacted  over  the  opposition  of 
the  aristocratic  members  of  the  house,  and  Bacon  was  cor- 
dially hated  by  Berkeley  and  the  aristocracy. 

In  the  meantime  his  enemies  plotted  for  his  overthrow, 
and  fearing  that  his  life  was  in  danger,  the  rebel  left  James- 


I04  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

town.  "It  vexes  me  to  the  heart,"  said  Bacon,  "that  while 
I  am  hunting  the  wolves  and  tigers  that  destroy  our  lambs, 
I  should  myself  be  pursued  as  a  savage."  He  asks,  have 
not  the  ruling  classes  "devoured  the  common  treasury? 
What  arts,  what  sciences,  what  schools  of  learning  have 
they  promoted?"^ 

Encouraged  by  popular  approval  Bacon  proceeded 
against  the  Indians,  while  Berkeley  withdrew  beyond  the 
Chesapeake,  and  by  promises  of  plunder  endeavored  to  col- 
lect an  army,  "men  of  a  base  and  cowardly  disposition, 
allured  by  the  passion  for  plunder."^**  He  returned  to 
Jamestown  in  a  few  days. 

He  then  charged  the  governor  with  having  imposed 
unjust  taxes  "for  the  advancement  of  private  favorites 
and  other  sinister  ends,"  for  "having  rendered  contemptible 
the  majesty  of  justice,  of  advancing  .  .  .  scandalous 
and  ignorant  favorites,"  for  having  assumed  "the  monopoly 
of  the  beaver  trade,"  and  failure  to  "give  protection  against 
the  assaults  of  the  Indians."  He  also  denounced  the  aris- 
tocracy, the  "juggling  parasites  whose  tottering  fortunes 
have  been  repaired  at  the  public  charge."  These  charges 
committed  Bacon  to  open  revolt  against  the  governor  and 
the  ruling  class. 

He  again  entered  the  field  against  the  Indians  and  on 
the  return  march  the  rebels  burned  Jamestown.  But  his 
radical  utterances  and  general  policy  frightened  some  of 
his  well-to-do  followers,  who  deserted  him — a  treachery  for 
which  the  middle  class  is  noted  in  all  countries  and  at  all 
times.  The  poorer  classes  were  left  to  form  the  ranks  of 
his  small  force  and  the  struggle  assumed  the  character  of 


9Bancroft,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II,  p.  223. 
lolbid,  p.  226. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  IO5 

a  class  war  with  all  the  elements  of  the  aristocracy  arrayed 
against  the  rebels.  Shortly  after  the  burning  of  James- 
town, while  marching  north,  Bacon  fell  a  victim  of  malarial 
fever.  His  death  brought  the  collapse  of  the  rebellion, 
though  small  groups  held  out  for  some  time.  Berkeley 
punished  the  rebels  with  such  ferocity  as  to  call  forth  the 
protest  of  the  king,  who  said,  "the  old  fool  has  put  to  death 
more  people  in  that  naked  country  than  I  did  here  for  the 
murder  of  my  father."^^ 

Berkeley  justified  the  executions  by  his  right  to  pro- 
claim martial  law,  although  when  he  exercised  it  resistance 
had  ceased  and  the  "real  reason  for  which  the  power  had 
been  originally  granted  was  no  longer  in  operation. "^- 
Fearing  that  juries  would  acquit  the  rebels  courts-martial 
hurried  them  to  death.  Women  and  children  were  driven 
from  home  and  compelled  to  rely  on  charity.  Of  those  who 
went  to  trial  none  escaped  death.  The  Assembly  was 
finally  forced  to  interfere  and  voted  an  address  "that  the 
governor  would  spill  no  more  blood.^^  In  fact,  the  fore- 
most historian  of  Virginia  asserts  that  "it  is  doubtful  if  any 
of  them  (the  rebels)  were  tried  at  all  by  the  only  civil  court 
having  the  power  to  inflict  punishment  for  their  supposed 
treason.  The  unfortunate  Drummond,  for  instance,  seems 
to  have  been  ordered  to  execution  only  a  few  hours  after 
his  arrest;  and  there  were  other  cases  quite  as  summary 
which  reflect  an  equal  degree  of  shame  and  disgrace  on 
Berkeley's  memory."^* 

It  was  the  leading  families  who  had  large  estates  and 


iiFiske,  "Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,"  Vol.  II,  p.  95.     See  also 
Thwaites,  "The  Colonies,"  pp.  78-79. 

i2Bruce,  "Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  Vol.  11,  p.  321. 
isBancroft,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II,  p.  232. 
i4Bruce,   "Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  674-675. 


I06  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

made  up  the  wealthy  aristocracy  of  Virginia  that  supported 
the  grafting  governor  in  the  rebelHon.  This  class  had  grad- 
ually usurped  powers  in  the  government  and  restricted  the 
privileges  of  the  poorer  classes.  A  great  section  of  the  pop- 
ulation was  also  in  the  direst  poverty  so  that  the  economic 
and  political  conditions  favoring  revolt  were  abundant.  Wil- 
liam Sherwood,  who  later  became  attorney  general  of  Vir- 
ginia, referred  to  the  rebels  as  "ye  scum  of  the  country. ' 
A  member  of  the  council  says  that  Bacon  "gathers  about 
him  a  Rabble  of  the  basest  sort  of  people,  whose  Condicion 
was  such,  as  by  a  change  could  not  admitt  of  worse, 
.who  for  ye  ease  of  the  poore  will  have  noe  taxes 
paied,  .  .  .  but  would  have  all  magistracie  &  Govern- 
m'nt  taken  away  &  Sett  up  one  themselves,  &  to  make  their 
Good  Intentions  more  manifest  stick  not  to  talk  openly  of 
sharing  men's  estates  among  themselves." 

This  testimony  comes  from  the  aristocrats,  and  indi- 
cates that  they  regarded  the  rebellion  as  a  revolt  of  the 
poorer  classes  to  secure  equality  of  political  rights  and 
economic  opportunities.  The  rebels  are  even  charged  with 
having  communistic  aspirations — with  the  desire  "of  shar- 
ing men's  estates"  in  common.  It  is  probable  that  Bacon 
may  have  had  a  communistic  program  in  mind.  It  would 
have  served  to  unite  the  poor  against  the  landed  aristocracy. 
They  also  knew  that  early  in  the  history  of  Virginia  the 
planting  of  corn,  clearing  the  wilderness,  fortifying  the 
settlement  and  work  in  general  was  performed,  for  a  time, 
on  a  communistic  basis.  The  charge  against  Bacon  then 
was  that  he  promised  a  return  to  this  early  stage  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  colony. 

Bacon  was  driven  to  this  radicalism  in  order  to  hold 
the  loyalty  of  the  poor  after  the  desertion  of  the  better- 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  IO7 

situated  elements  and  also  because  of  the  knowledge  that 
should  he  fail  he  would  probably  be  hanged  or  shot.  The 
causes  of  the  revolt  are  well  summarized  by  the  historian 
Fiske. 

"The  years  preceding  the  rebellion,"  he  writes,  "were 
such  as  are  commonly  called  'hard  times.'  People  felt  poor 
and  saw  fortunes  made  by  corrupt  officials;  the  fault  was 
with  the  Navigation  Act  and  with  the  debauched  civil 
service  of  Charles  II  and  Berkeley.  Besides  these  troubles, 
which  were  common  to  all,  the  poorer  people  felt  oppressed 
by  taxation,  in  regard  to  which  they  were  not  consulted 
and  for  which  they  seemed  to  get  no  service  in  return. 
The  distribution  of  taxation  by  polls,  equal  amounts  for 
rich  and  poor,  was  resented  as  a  cruel  injustice.  The  sub- 
ject of  taxation  was  clearly  connected  with  the  Indian 
troubles,  for  people  paid  large  sums  for  military  defense 
and  nevertheless  saw  their  houses  burned  and  their  fami- 
lies massacred."^®  We  have  seen  in  a  previous  chapter  that 
lack  of  protection  for  the  frontier  was  generally  the  policy 
of  the  colonial  rulers,  and  Bacon's  Rebellion  is  a  noted 
example  of  the  discontent  this  policy  provoked.  Had  Bacon 
proved  successful  he  would  have  become  noted  as  a  pioneer 
in  the  struggle  for  popular  rule.  Of  Bacon's  Assembly  we 
may  say,  in  the  words  of  Prof.  Bruce,  that  "Had  the  theatre 
upon  which  this  Assembly  met  been  that  of  a  nation  instead 
of  that  of  a  small  colony  in  a  remote  part  of  the  world,  its 
spirit  and  its  measures  would  long  ago  have  won  an  ex- 
traordinary fame  in  history,  and  the  legislators  themselves 
would  have  enjoyed  a  universal  reputation  as  among  the 
wisest  and  most  patriotic  who  have  been  called  on  to  pass 
laws  in  a  great  crisis."^® 

isFiske,   "Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,"  Vol.  II,  p.   105. 
leBruce,   "Institutional  History  of  Virginia,"  Vol.  U,  p.   494. 


I08  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Many  refugees  of  Bacon's  Rebellion  fled  to  North 
Carolina,  where  they  found  a  safe  asylum  from  the  blood 
lust  of  Berkeley.  Here  the  population  was  also  seething 
with  revolt  because  of  the  Navigation  Act,  restriction  of 
political  privileges,  and  tyrannical  administration  of  the 
colony.  The  leader  of  the  rebellion  was  John  Culpepper, 
held  by  the  royalists  as  meriting  "hanging,  for  endeavoring 
to  set  the  poor  people  to  plundering  the  rich."  One  coun- 
sellor joined  the  rebellion,  while  the  rest,  with  President 
Miller,  were  imprisoned. 

Culpepper  had  the  support  of  the  poor  and  uneducated 
majority,  and  accepted  a  commission  to  England  to  present 
the  grievances  of  the  colonists.  Miller  escaped  to  England 
and  enlisted  the  support  of  the  mercantile  cities,  and  Cul- 
pepper was  arrested  for  high  treason  just  as  he  was  embark- 
ing from  America.  A  trial  resulted  in  his  acquittal  by  an 
English  jury.  Governor  Sothel,  who  succeeded  to  that 
position  after  the  restoration  of  peace,  was  another  of  the 
many  colonial  grafters  of  that  time.  "From  among  many  as 
infamous  as  himself,  historians  have  selected  him  as  the 
most  infamous."  He  swindled  the  proprietaries  and  ex- 
ploited the  settlers  through  excessive  fees  for  five  years 
when  he  was  deposed  by  his  outraged  victims.^'' 

In  Maryland  similar  acts  of  tyranny  were  developing 
popular  discord  and  the  news  of  Bacon's  Rebellion  encour- 
aged the  populace  in  trying  to  abolish  abuses.  During  the  ab- 
sence of  Lord  Baltimore  the  Assembly  responded  to  popular 
demands  by  extending  the  franchise,  but  Lord  Baltimore  on 
his  return  annulled  the  popular  measure.  Dire  poverty  was 
the  lot  of  many  and  not  only  rebellion,  but  independence, 
was  planned.    The  unrest  was  aggravated  by  the  dominant 


iTBancroft,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  U,  Chap.  XHt. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  IO9 

religious  creed  of  the  Catholics.  Though  rebellion  or  mu- 
tinous speeches  were  punishable  by  whipping,  boring  the 
tongue,  imprisonment,  or  death,  the  discontent  increased, 
and  in  1689  the  insurgents  usurped  the  government. 

The  next  revolt  of  importance  was  that  of  Leisler's 
Rebellion  in  New  York  twelve  years  after  Bacon's  Rebellion 
in  Virginia.  As  already  noted  New  York  was  the  nearest 
approach  to  the  establishment  of  feudalism  in  America.  The 
sweeping  powers  and  privileges  given  the  manor  lords 
created  discontent  from  the  beginning  of  colonization.  Their 
descendants  claimed  feudal  rights  well  into  the  nineteenth 
century  and  on  the  great  Van  Rensselaer  estate  an  attempt 
to  collect  long  arrears  of  rents  developed  an  anti-rent  move- 
ment (1839-1846)  which  resulted  in  bloody  riots.^^ 

Coupled  with  the  existence  of  an  overbearing,  wealthy, 
ruling  class,  was  the  usual  administration  of  grafting  gov- 
ernors. Fletcher,  we  have  seen,  had  a  close  alliance  with 
the  pirates  and  shared  in  their  loot.  The  pirates  were  un- 
derselling the  regular  merchants,  which  added  this  class  to 
the  mass  of  the  discontented.  This  pirate  commerce  was 
enormous  and  for  a  time  New  York  resembled  an  oriental 
city.  "For  a  dozen  years  or  more  the  streets  of  New  York 
might  have  reminded  one  of  Teheran  or  Bassora,  with  their 
shops  displaying  rugs  of  Anatolia  or  Daghestan,  tables  of 
carved  teak-wood,  vases  of  hammered  brass  or  silver,  Bag- 
dad portieres,  fans  of  ivory  or  sandalwood,  soft  shawls  of 
myriad  gorgeous  hues  and  white  crape."^^ 

The  landed  aristocracy  shared  some  of  their  power 
with  rich  fur  traders,  lawyers  and  officials.  At  the  bottom 
of  society  were  the  small    farmers,    sailors,    shipwrights. 


isThwaites,    "The  Colonies,"   p.   199. 

lOFiske,  "Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,"  Vol.  IT,  p.  225. 


no  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

artisans  and  indentured  slaves  who  were  viewed  with  con- 
tempt by  the  aristocracy. 

Jacob  Leisler,  who  gave  his  name  to  the  rebelHon,  was 
a  German  of  humble  origin,  born  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
He  had  married  a  daughter  of  a  rich  family,  but  was  not 
accepted  on  terms  of  equality  with  the  ruling  class.  He 
was  lacking  in  the  education  and  polish  that  distinguished 
the  wealthy  idlers.  His  sympathy  with  the  poor  was  ex- 
pressed in  deeds.  In  1689  he  bought  a  piece  of  land  for 
Huguenots,  and  at  another  time  when  a  poor  Huguenot 
family  were  to  be  sold  as  redemptioners,  he  delivered  them 
from  servitude  by  paying  their  passage  money.-"  He  was 
admired  by  the  poor  for  his  honesty  and  unselfishness, 
which  made  him  the  logical  leader  of  the  discontent  that  had 
been  long  gathering  in  the  city. 

King  James  H  had  consolidated  New  England,  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  under  Governor  Andros.  The  latter 
went  to  New  England,  leaving  Francis  Nicholson  as  lieu- 
tenant governor,  when  news  came  of  the  flight  of  King 
James  and  the  landing  of  William  of  Orange  in  England. 
Nicholson  withheld  the  news  and  Leisler,  hearing  of  the 
event,  made  it  public.  The  latter  also  refused  to  pay  duty 
on  a  cargo  of  wine  on  the  ground  that  the  collector  was 
a  Catholic,  and  since  King  James'  flight  no  legal  govern- 
ment existed  in  New  York.  There  was  also  the  popular 
belief  that  Governor  Nicholson  had  gone  over  to  Louis 
XIV,  and  an  invasion  by  a  French  fleet  was  feared. 

An  insolent  remark  of  the  governor  released  the  pent- 
up  forces  of  revolt.  A  militia  company,  representing  the 
popular  party,  seized  the  fort  and  Leisler,  after  repeated 


20Faust,  "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I,  p.  14, 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  III 

solicitations,  took  command.  A  committee  of  public  safety, 
elected  by  popular  vote,  turned  the  aristocratic  govern- 
ment out  and  proclaimed  Jacob  Leisler  commander-in-chief 
of  the  fort  and  city.  At  another  election  the  aristocracy 
was  completely  routed  and  Leisler  was  proclaimed  supreme 
commander  of  the  province.  The  defeated  masters  en- 
deavored to  stir  up  discord.  "The  name  of  Leisler  was 
dragged  through  the  mire.  He  was  branded  as  a  tyrant, 
usurper,  demagogue,  even  as  a  Papist  and  Jacobite,  by  the 
very  persons  who  had  proved  their  disloyalty  to  the  new 
dynasty."-^ 

The  aristocrats  tried  to  kidnap  the  popular  commander, 
but  failed  and  three  of  them  were  themselves  imprisoned. 
Leisler  held  power  for  several  years  during  which  the  first 
American  congress  of  the  colonies  met  in  New  York  at  his 
call  in  May,  1690.  But  his  rule  was  not  to  endure  long. 
Discontent  over  taxes,  the  refusal  of  William  to  recognize 
his  agent,  the  timidity  and  lack  of  concerted  plans  of  his 
followers,  the  plotting  and  bitter  antagonism  of  his  enemies, 
contributed  to  his  overthrow.  The  arrival  of  Governor 
Sloughter  was  followed  by  the  seizure  of  Leisler  and  his 
son-in-law,  Milborne.  ''A  sham  trial  was  instituted,  in  which 
Sloughter  appointed  Leisler's  personal  enemies  as  his 
judges.""  The  councilors  arrested  with  him  were  released; 
Leisler  was  charged  with  rebellion,  confiscation  of  property, 
and  the  illegal  levying  of  taxes.  He  and  Milborne  refused 
to  defend  themselves  against  the  charges  and  both  were  sen- 
tenced to  death.  Both  were  hanged  May  16,  1691,  near  the 
present  site  of  the  World  building  in  Park  Row. 

Sloughter  was  reluctant  to  sign  the  death  warrant  and 


21Ibid,  pp.  17-18. 
22lbid,    p.    23. 


112  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

tradition  has  it  that  at  a  wedding  feast  of  one  of  the  aris- 
tocrats, the  governor  was  induced  to  sign  the  paper  while 
drunk.  Leisler  made  a  pathetic  speech  just  before  the 
bandage  was  applied  to  his  eyes,  and  thus  died  one  of  the 
early  popular  revolts  against  class  rule  in  America. 

A  later  governor.  Lord  Bellomont,  a  man  of  demo- 
cratic tastes,  who  detested  the  landed  parasites,  declared 
the  execution  of  Leisler  and  Milborne  was  a  judicial  mur- 
der and  their  estates  were  restored  to  their  heirs.  Though 
the  leaders  of  the  rebellion  were  removed  the  Leisler  party 
was  active  for  some  years  and  was  instrumental  in  secur- 
ing the  removal  of  the  notorious  Fletcher,  whose  career  we 
have  had  occasion  to  mention  a  number  of  times.^^ 

Maladministration  in  North  Carolina  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century  provoked  the  revolt  known  as  the 
War  of  the  Regulators.  Power  had  been  concentrated  in 
the  hands  of  the  Governor  and  a  few  prominent  men.  Graft- 
ing "rings"  controlled  the  spoils  of  office  in  the  western 
counties  and  excessive  taxes  plundered  the  farmers  of  the 
back  country.  Scarcity  of  money  made  it  difficult  for  them 
to  pay  their  taxes,  and  the  collectors  frequently  refused  to 
extend  time  for  payment  and  seized  property  for  less  than 
its  value.  "The  Regulators  charged  that  officers  played  into 
each  other's  hands  for  this  purpose,  and  there  were  men  in 


23Fiske,  "Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  183-228,  and 
Appendix  I.  Also  Faust,  "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States," 
Vol.  I,  pp.  13-25.  Edwin  Lassetter  Bynner's  novel,  "The  Begum's 
Daughter,"  is  a  story  of  Leisler's  Rebellion,  but  presents  Leisler  as 
a  tyrannical  fool.  The  basis  of  the  revolt,  the  tyranny  of  the  land 
kings,  the  shameless  grafting  of  public  officials,  the  oppression  of  the 
poor  classes  and  small  shopkeepers,  is  almost  entirely  concealed  and 
Van  Cortlandt,  a  scion  of  one  of  the  wealthy  families,  is  made  the 
hero  of  the  story.  Fisher  in  his  "Men,  Women  and  Manners  in  Co- 
lonial Times,"  (pp.  80-84),  also  gives  an  unfavorable  account  of  the 
rebellion. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  II3 

Hillsborough  who  made  large  sums  by  dealing  in  such  busi- 
ness."^* 

The  sheriffs  were  dishonest  and  were  charged  with  hav- 
ing "embezzled  more  than  one-half  of  the  public  money 
ordered  to  be  raised  and  collected  by  them."  In  1770  the 
official  grafters  were  in  arrears  more  than  66,000  pounds. 

A  service  for  which  the  law  provided  a  fixed  fee  was 
also  divided  into  two  or  more  services  and  a  fee  demanded 
for  each.  The  courts  were  believed  to  be  implicated  by 
their  delay  of  cases,  thus  increasing  costs.  The  lack  of 
courts  in  the  back  country,  necessitating  a  journey  of  from 
thirty  to  sixty  miles,  was  another  grievance,  and  the  post- 
poned cases  of  one  court  were  about  one  thousand  in  1766. 
Many  of  these  victimized  workers,  after  the  revolt  was  sup- 
pressed at  the  battle  of  Alamance,  in  1771,  moved  on  into 
the  wilderness  while  many  of  their  exploiters  became  prom- 
inent as  leaders  in  the  war  of  independence.  The  survivors 
of  the  revolt  who  stayed  in  North  Carolina  either  remained 
aloof  from  the  war  or  openly  supported  the  British  as 
against  the  ruling  classes. ^'^ 

The  records  regarding  revolts  of  indentured  whites 
are  scanty,  but  that  they  took  place  is  certain.  The  white 
bondman,  like  the  black  slave,  frequently  acting  under  the 
spur  of  brutal  treatment,  would  murder  his  master.  One 
redemptioner  who  was  hung  in  chains  in  Virginia,  in  Au- 
gust, 1678,  for  murdering  his  owner,  mistress  and  her  maid, 
has  left  a  pathetic  autobiography  telling  of  the  treatment  he 


24Howard,  "Preliminaries  of  the  Revolution,"  p.  223,  quoting  Bas- 
sett. 

25lbid,  Chap.  XIII.  Paul  Leicester  Ford's  novel,  "Janice  Meredith," 
not  only  portrays  white  servitude  during  the  revolutionarj'  period,  hut 
also  the  fluctuating  character  of  sentiment  at  that  time,  favoring  the 
rebels  one  day  and  opposing  the  next.  This  is  humorously  portrayed 
in  the  publican  who  changed  the  sign  on  his  tavern  from  George  in 
to  George  Washington  and  back  again  as  the  fortunes  of  war  dictated. 


Il4  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

received  and  how  he  came  to  the  resolution  to  kill  his  tor- 
mentors.^® 

Bernard  Romans'  "Concise  Natural  History  of  East 
and  West  Florida"  (New  York,  1776),  records  a  rebellion 
of  white  slaves  about  35  miles  south  of  St.  Augustine,  on 
St.  John's  river.  The  writer  asserts  that  the  settlement 
was  famous  "on  account  of  the  cruel  methods  of  settling  it, 
which  made  it  the  daily  topic  of  conversation  for  a  long 
time  in  this  and  the  neighboring  provinces." 

"About  1,500  people,  men,  women  and  children,"  he 
writes,  "were  deluded  away  from  their  native  country, 
where  they  lived  at  home  in  the  plentiful  cornfields  and 
vineyards  of  Greece  and  Italy,  to  this  place,  where,  instead 
of  plenty,  they  found  want  in  its  last  degree,  instead  of 
promised  fields,  a  dreary  wilderness ;  instead  of  a  grateful, 
fertile  soil,  a  barren  arid  sand ;  and  in  addition  to  their 
misery,  were  obliged  to  indent  themselves,  their  wives  and 
children  for  many  years,  to  a  man  who  had  the  most  san- 
guine expectations  of  transplanting  Bashawship  from  the 
Levant.  The  better  to  effect  his  purpose,  he  gi  anted  them 
a  pitiful  portion  of  land  for  ten  years,  upon  the  plan  of 
the  feudal  system ;  this  being  improved  and  just  rendered 
fit  for  cultivation,  at  the  end  of  that  term  it  reverts  to 
the  original  grantor,  and  the  grantee  may,  if  he  chooses, 
begin  a  new  state  of  vassalage  for  ten  years  more.  Many 
were  denied  even  such  grants  as  these,  and  were  obliged 
to  work  in  the  manner  of  negroes,  a  task  in  the  field ;  their 
provisions  were  at  the  best  times  only  a  quart  of  maize 
per  day,  and  tzvo  ounces  of  pork  per  week ;  this  might  have 
sufficed  with  the  help  of  fish  which  abounds  in  this  lagoon. 


26See   "A   Documentary  History   of  American  Industrial   Society," 
Tol.  I. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  II5 

but  they  were  denied  the  liberty  of  fishing,  and  lest  they 
should  not  labor  enough,  inhuman  taskmasters  were  set 
over  them,  and  instead  of  allowing  each  family  to  do  with 
their  homely  fare  as  they  pleased,  they  were  forced  to  join 
altogether  in  one  mess,  and  at  the  beat  of  a  vile  drum,  to 
come  to  one  common  copper,  from  whence  their  homany 
(hominy)  was  ladled  ont  to  them;  even  this  coarse  and 
scanty  meal  was  through  careless  management  rendered 
still  more  coarse. 

"O  Florida!  were  this  the  only  instance  of  similar 
barbarity  which  thou  hast  seen,  we  might  draw  a  veil  over 
these  scenes  of  horror;  but  Rolles  Town,  Mount  Royal 
and  three  or  four  others  of  less  note  have  seen  too  many 
wretches  fall  victims  to  hunger  and  ill  usage,  and  that  at 
a  period  of  life  when  health  and  strength  generally  main- 
tain the  human  frame  in  its  greatest  vigor,  and  seem  to 
insure  longevity.  Rolles  Town  in  particular  has  been  the 
sepulchre  of  above  four  hundred  such  victims." 

He  then  relates  the  story  of  an  insurrection  of  these 
slaves  "which  the  great  ones  stile  rebellion."  The  poor 
wretches  driven  to  despair  in  1769,  by  these  intolerable 
conditions,  entered  some  provision  stores  and  seized  some 
boats  lying  in  the  harbor.  Like  the  other  revolts  we  have 
reviewed,  the  rebels  acted  without  any  careful  planning  and 
the  leadership  fell  to  an  Italian  whose  reputation  was  iiot 
of  the  best.  While  hiding  in  the  harbor  a  regiment  of 
troops  arrived  to  whom  they  surrendered,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  boat,  which  escaped  to  the  Florida  Keys. 
Romans,  the  historian  of  the  affair,  was  one  of  the  grand 
jury  to  investigate  the  rebellion,  and  states  "we  only  found 
five  bills."  One  was  found  against  a  rebel  who  had  maimed 
one  Cutter,  "who  had  been  made  a  justice  of  the  pe:.ce, 


]l6  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

with  no  other  view  than  to  enable  him  to  execute  his  bar- 
barities to  a  larger  extent."  Here,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  we 
find  "grafters  in  high  places"  interested  in  this  white  slav- 
ery. A  number  of  the  rebels  were  executed,  one  for  killing 
a  cow: 

The  jury  room  was  crowded  v/ith  masters  whose 
scowls  indicated  the  sentences  they  wanted.  But  the  jury 
seemed  more  lenient  than  the  aristocratic  slavers  expected 
for  we  are  informed  that  it  "disappointed  the  expectations 
of  more  than  one  great  man.  Governor  Grant  pardoned 
two,  and  a  third  who  was  obliged  to  he  the  executioner  of 
the  remaining  two."  We  feel  some  elation  to  be  informed 
that  the  grafting  justice  of  the  peace  "some  time  after  died 
a  lingering  death,  having  experienced,  besides  his  wounds, 
the  terrors  of  a  coward  in  power,  overtaken  by  ven- 
geance."^^ 

Shays'  Rebellion  after  the  Revolution  had  such  an  im- 
portant influence  in  determining  the  acts  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  that  we  will  consider  it  in  another  chapter. 
Social  upheavals  and  class  wars  have  played  their  part  in 
shaping  American  history  from  its  beginning.  These  revolts 
are  generally  stigmatized  in  popular  histories  and  often 
regarded  as  unreasoning  outbursts  of  passion,  sometimes 
fomented  by  agitators  and  demagogues.  We  have  seen  that 
all  of  them  had  their  justification  in  some  economic  griev- 
ance, and  often  a  long  series  of  unbearable  injustices. 
Whether  we  call  them  rebellions,  insurrections,  strikes, 
revolts  or  civil  wars,  matters  little.  That  they  incarnated 
the  spirit  of  rebellion  against  colonial  slavers  and  rulers  is 
of  interest  to  us.     The  subject  classes  that  are  capable  of 


27Se«  "A   Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial   Society,' 
Vol.  I,  for  Romans'  account  of  the  insurrection. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  II7 

turning  on  those  who  profit  by  their  subjection — and  do 
turn — are  worthy  of  our  admiration  and  esteem.  //  is  tliis 
spirit  of  revolt  among  the  poor,  not  the  intrigues  and  "states- 
manship" of  the  "great  men"  of  the  past,  that  zve  regard  as 
glorious  in  American  history. 

We  shall  see  in  another  chapter  how  one  rebellion 
drove  the  ruling  classes  to  Philadelphia,  in  1787,  to  estab- 
lish a  "strong  government"  in  behalf  of  property  and  thus 
complete  the  conquest  of  economic  resources  and  political 
power  by  these  classes. 


Il8  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Chapter  VI 

General  Status  of  the  Workers 


In  reviewing  the  general  economic  and  social  condi- 
tions of  the  workers  we  are  aware  that  it  would  be  a  false 
judgment  to  base  our  estimate  on  twentieth  century  stand- 
ards. The  degree  of  material  comfort  possible  before 
the  age  of  machinery  was  necessarily  less  than  now.  The 
capacity  for  producing  wealth  was  small  owing  to  the 
crude  forms  of  production  that  prevailed.  Yet  with  this 
reservation  only  one  with  a  bias  favoring  aristocracy  can 
give  the  appreciative  view  of  the  past  that  is  usually  found 
in  the  school  books  and  histories.  It  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  that  the  society  of  colonial  times,  and  long  after  the 
Revolution,  regarded  labor  as  a  badge  of  shame.  It  was 
because  of  this  view  held  by  the  wealthy  classes  that  all  the 
colonies,  and  later  the  states,  withheld  the  franchise  from 
those  not  possessing  a  certain  amount  of  property.  The 
possession  of  property  was  a  passport  to  the  "best  society" 
and  enabled  the  holder  to  share  in  political  and  other  privi- 
leges. If  a  poor  farmer  or  laborer  by  some  stroke  of  good 
fortune  came  into  possession  of  wealth,  it  removed  the 
social  and  economic  curse  under  which  he  previously  lived. 

Massachusetts,  in  1691,  restricted  the  franchise  to  pos- 
sessors of  an  estate  of  freehold  in  land  or  other  estate  to 
the  value  of  40  pounds  per  annum.  A  Maryland  law 
(1681)  limited  the  suffrage  to  those  having  freeholds  of 
fifty  acres  or  other  property  worth  40  pounds.     In  New 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  II9 

Jersey  (1688)  it  was  200  acres  of  land  or  50  pounds.  New 
York  (1665)  provided  for  town  meetings  and  election  of 
a  constable  and  eight  overseers  by  a  "plurality  of  the  voices 
of  the  freeholders."  In  1680  an  assembly  was  formed 
composed  of  eighteen  deputies  elected  by  freeholders.  In 
Connecticut  (1639)  the  governor  and  six  magistrates  were 
to  be  elected  by  a  majority  of  the  freemen.  In  Virginia 
the  suffrage  had  been  restricted  to  freemen,  but  in  1670  it 
was  further  restricted  to  "such  as  by  their  estates,  real  or 
personal!,  have  interest  enough  to  tye  them  to  the  endeavor 
of  the  publique  good."^  This  law  was  one  of  the  causes 
contributing  to  Bacon's  Rebellion. 

In  South  Carolina  (1765)  members  of  the  assembly 
must  own  500  acres  of  land  and  ten  slaves  or  possess  1,000 
pounds  in  land,  houses  and  other  propert)^  In  Georgia 
delegates  to  the  assembly  are  required  to  own  500  acres  of 
land  and  suffrage  was  restricted  to  those  who  owned  50 
acres  or  a  town  lot.  In  North  Carolina  one  must  own  land 
to  hold  office,  and  only  freeholders  could  vote.  "This  sys- 
tem was  ingrafted  on  the  constitution  adopted  when  North 
Carolina  became  a  state,  and  by  which  senators  were 
obliged  to  own  300  acres  of  land,  and  representatives  100, 
while  the  suffrage  was  restricted  to  freeholders  of  50 
acres."^ 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  triumph  of 
the  Revolution  brought  few  changes  in  the  property  quali- 
fications for  the  franchise.  Nearly  all  the  state  constitu- 
tions adopted  at  this  time  repeated  the  assertion  of  the 
Declaration  that  "all  men  are  created  equal,"  but  "an  exam- 
ination of  these  state  constitutions  reveals  the  fact  that  in 


iSee  Thwaites,  "The  Colonies." 

2Lodge,  "History  of  the  English  Colonies,"  p.  149. 


I20  THE    WORKERS    IX    AMERICAN    HISTORV 

their  formation  very  little  regard  was  paid  to  the  self-evi- 
dent truths,  and  that  the  very  men  who  were  loudly  assert- 
ing the  political  equality  of  man  went  on  and  set  up  gov- 
ernments under  which  political  equality  had  no  existence."^ 
The  suffrage  laws  in  the  states  after  the  Revolution  confirm 
this  judgment.  Massachusetts  required  the  voter  to  have 
an  income  of  three  pounds  a  year  from  a  freehold  estate  or 
personal  estate  worth  sixty  pounds.  In  Connecticut  he 
must  have  a  similar  income  of  seven  dollars  or  real  estate 
worth  $134.  In  New  Jersey  his  real  estsate  must  be  worth 
fifty  pounds,  and  Maryland  the  same,  or  personal  property 
of  thirty  pounds.  In  Virginia  he  must  own  "twenty-five 
acres  of  land,  properly  planted,  with  a  house  thereon  at 
least  twelve  feet  square  on  the  foundation,"  or  fifty  acres  of 
wild  land  or  a  town  lot.  In  South  Carolina  he  must  be  a 
free  white  man  owning  fifty  acres  or  a  town  lot. 

To  hold  office  the  property  qualifications  were  still 
higher,  ranging  from  100  pounds  to  500,  or  land  or  slaves, 
and  generally  including  a  belief  in  the  Christian  religion. 
Everywhere  the  basis  of  office  holding  and  the  suffrage 
was  property.  "It  was  indeed  true  that  all  governments 
derived  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed; 
yet  under  these  early  state  constitutions,  none  but  tax-pay- 
ing, property-owning  men  could  give  that  consent  from 
which  government  derives  its  just  powers.  .  .  .  The 
poor  man  counted  for  nothing.  He  was  governed,  but  not 
with  his  consent,  by  his  property-owning  Christian  neigh- 
bors. ...  In  short,  the  broad  doctrine  that  govern- 
ments derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  was  not  accepted  by  the  'Fathers.'  "* 


aMcMaster,    "The   Acquisition   of  the   Political,    Social    and   Ittdus- 
trial  Rights  of  Man  in  America,"  p.  15. 
4lbid,  pp.  18-21. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  121 

Exclusion  of  masses  of  workingmen  from  the  ballot 
continued  till  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  in 
1842  it  caused  an  armed  uprising  in  Rhode  Island,  known 
as  "Dorr's  Rebellion."  This  revolt  temporarily  seated 
Thomas  Dorr  in  the  governor's  chair,  but  he  was  finally 
ousted,  the  rebellion  put  down  with  troops,  and  a  price 
was  placed  on  the  head  of  the  fugitive  governor.  He  was 
captured  and  sentenced  to  prison  for  life  for  the  "crime" 
of  endeavoring  to  establish  popular  rule.  In  1845  ^  lit)" 
eration"  governor  was  elected,  Dorr  was  set  free,  and  the 
clerk  of  the  supreme  court  was  ordered  to  write  across  the 
record  of  his  sentence  the  words  "REVERSED  AND  AN- 
NULLED BY  ORDER  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEM- 
BLY."= 

A  study  of  the  official  declarations  of  the  dominant 
political  parties  down  to  this  time  reveals  the  fact  that  all 
of  them  zvere  silent  regarding  this  policy  of  disfranchise- 
ment. In  fact,  their  spokesmen  opposed  extension  of  suf- 
frage to  the  poor.  Daniel  Webster,  for  example,  in  the 
Massachusetts  Constitutional  convention  (1820)  made  the 
most  powerful  argument  against  universal  suffrage.®  In 
the  New  York  convention  (1821)  Chancellor  Kent,  op- 
posing universal  suffrage,  said:  "This  democratic  principle 
cannot  be  contemplated  without  terror.  .  .  .  Univer- 
sal suffrage  jeopardizes  property  and  puts  in  into  the  power 
of  the  poor  and  the  profligate  to  control  the  affluent. 
The  poor  man's  interest  is  ahvays  in  opposition  to 
his  duty,  and  it  is  too  much  to  expect  of  human  nature 
that  interest  will  not  be  consulted."'^  This  expresses  the 
philosophy  of  class  rule  nicely.    It  is  the  "poor  man's  duty" 


sibid,  pp.  111-122. 

eibid,  p.  82. 
Tibid.  pp.  70-71. 


122  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

to  serve  the  ruling  class,  but  his  "interest  is  always  in 
opposition  to  his  duty."  If  the  worker  should  neglect  his 
"duty"  and  follow  the  urge  of  his  interest,  as  a  rational 
human  being  should,  what  would  become  of  the  "gentlemen 
of  substance"  who  live  on  his  sweat  and  blood  ? 

But  the  colonial  masters  did  not  rely  on  their  class 
laws  alone  to  insure  their  supremacy.  They  were  skilled 
in  the  use  of  the  most  brutal  practices  at  elections.  This 
was  necessary  as  there  was  always  more  or  less  antagonism 
between  them  and  the  more  fortunate  of  the  poor  classes 
who  managed  to  qualify  for  the  suffrage.  For  example,  at 
the  annual  election  for  members  of  the  Pennsylvania  assem- 
bly in  1742,  a  large  number  of  sailors  in  Philadelphia  were 
armed  with  clubs  by  one  faction  and  assaulted  opposing 
voters  and  election  officials.  When  the  ground  was  cleared 
several  were  carried  off  dead.  This  was  repeated  a  number 
of  times  when  an  investigation  showed  that  the  sailors  were 
hired  by  party  leaders.*  A  quaint  letter  is  still  preserved 
in  which  a  politician  of  the  same  state,  in  1765,  advises  that 
his  party  clique  go  to  the  polls  with  clubs  and,  if  necessary, 
"thrash  the  sheriff,  every  inspector,  Quaker  and  Mennonist 
to  a  jelly."^ 

A  debate  in  Congress  in  1790  preserves  some  interest- 
ing information  regarding  elections  in  the  Southern  states. 
In  Virginia  the  voters  of  an  entire  county  generally  voted 
at  one  courthouse.  One  candidate  had  a  brother  com- 
manding federal  troops  who  voted  them  for  his  aspiring 
relative.  A  congressman  asserted  that  at  his  own  election 
500  of  his  partisans  were  armed  with  clubs  and  that  force 
was  a  common  thing  at  the  polls.     "A  gentleman   from 


RHart,   "American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"   Vol.   II,   pp. 
85-86. 

9Hart,   "Source  Book  of  American  History,"  pp.  126-128. 


TPIE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I23 

South  Carolina  affected  to  be  much  surprised  at  this ;  but 
was  promptly  reminded  that  at  his  own  election  a  riot  had 
occurred,  that  it  had  occurred  in  a  church,  and  that  a 
magistrate  began  it  by  knocking  down  a  voter  and  dragging 
him  into  the  road."^*^  The  closer  we  get  to  the  patriot 
"Fathers"  the  less  do  they  resemble  the  portraits  usually 
given  us. 

We  have  seen  that  the  wages  paid  in  1774,  about  two 
dollars  per  week,  scarcely  enabled  the  workers  to  keep  out 
of  jail.  Their  food  and  clothing  were  naturally  abomina- 
ble and  many  modern  conveniences  were,  of  course,  un- 
known. The  worker  "rarely  tasted  fresh  meat  as  often  as 
once  in  a  week,  and  paid  for  it  a  much  higher  price  than 
his  posterity.  ...  A  pair  of  yellow  buckskin  or 
leather  breeches,  a  checked  shirt,  a  red  flannel  jacket,  a 
rusty  felt  hat  cocked  up  at  the  corners,  shoes  of  neat's-skin 
set  off  with  huge  buckles  of  brass,  and  a  leather  apron,  com- 
prised his  scanty  wardrobe.  The  leather  he  smeared  with 
grease  to  keep  it  soft  and  flexible.""  The  sons  generally 
began  life  where  the  fathers  ended  it. 

The  Puritan  society  of  New  England  was  based  on  an 
aristocracy  that  found  expression  in  every  phase  of  social 
life ;  in  manners,  habits,  customs,  morals,  religion  and  dress. 
Connecticut  in  1676  enacted  a  statute  providing  that  "what 
persons  soever  shall  wear  gold  or  silver  lace,  or  gold  or 
silver  buttons,  silk  ribbons  or  other  superfluous  trimmings" 
shall  be  assessed  at  150  pound  estate,  but  one  clause  of  the 
act  exempted  magistrates,  their  wives  and  children  and  mil- 
itary commissioned  officers,  or  "such  whose  quality  and 
estate  have  been  above  the  ordinary  degree  though  now  de- 


loMcMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  11, 
pp.   14-15. 

iilbid.  Vol.  I,  pp.   96-97. 


124  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

cayed."^-  This  act  was  intended  to  mark  the  distinction 
between  families  of  wealth  and  the  poor  classes  by  the 
clothing  they  wore.  Servants  and  other  workmen  wore 
jackets  and  breeches  of  serge,  linen  shirts,  worsted  stockings 
and  beaver  hats.  Their  diet  consisted  of  salt  pork,  baked 
beans,  Indian  pudding,  parched  corn,  "barley  fire-cake"  and 
other  rough  food. 

In  the  churches  "Balustrades,  with  small  columns  of 
varied  pattern,  kept  the  nobility  of  the  owner  from  the  too 
close  approach  of  the  vulgar."  Those  who  ruled  in  the 
church  were  always  careful  to  seat  the  congregation  accord- 
ing to  class  or  social  rank,  and  should  some  blundering  of- 
ficial bring  common  clay  too  close  to  superior  blood  a  con- 
troversy was  sure  to  result.  Equality  could  not  be  tolerated 
in  God's  meeting  house,  and  "whoever  construes  early  New 
England  thus  will  comprehend  little  of  its  essence."  Even 
in  laying  out  towns  the  division  of  the  inhabitants  into 
ranks  and  classes  was  common,  and  fines  were  sometimes 
graded  for  offenses  according  to  the  rank  of  the  ofifenders.^^ 

Indentured  servants  worked  under  rigorous  laws  and 
discipline  for  bad  conduct  was  very  severe.  Their  unex- 
pired terms  of  service  were  listed  in  inventories  and  were 
subject  to  barter  and  sale,  while  "Debtors  were  half  civil 
trespassers  and  half  slaves.  They  were  sold  for  servants 
for  terms  of  years.  .  .  .  One  of  the  most  painful 
signs  of  the  times  is  visible  in  the  Massachusetts  statute  of 
1683  to  prevent  any  from  selling  themselves  into  servitude 
for  one  debt  in  order  to  avoid  other  debts.    We  can  hardly 


i2Weecien,  "Social  and  Economic  History  of  New  England,"  Vol.  I, 
pp.  288-2S9.  In  1653  two  women  were  charged  with  wearing  silk  hoods 
and  scarfs,  but  on  proving  that  their  husbands  were  worth  200  pounds 
each,  they  were  released.  Another  was  also  discharged  "upon  testi- 
mony of  her  being  brought  up  above  the  ordinary  ranke." — p.  -227. 

i3lbid.  Vol.  I,  pp.  279-281,  passim. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  1 25 

coHceive  or  imagine  the  grinding  pressure  these  poor  delin- 
quents must  have  endured."^* 

The  planting,  rotting,  breaking,  dressing,  spinning, 
weaving,  and  bleaching  of  flax  was  an  important  part  of  the 
labor  of  most  families.  The  spinning  wheel  was  an  impor- 
tant equipment  of  each  household  and  young  girls  made 
many  garments  in  anticipation  of  the  day  they  would  be- 
come brides.  Spinning  was  the  women's  occupation,  the 
whir  of  the  wheel  being  usually  accompanied  with  the  songs 
of  the  operatives. 

A  curious  custom  grew  up  on  the  New  England  bor- 
der. The  log  huts  on  the  frontier  usually  consisted  of  one 
room  and  a  loft.  The  whole  family  generally  slept  on  the 
floor,  the  warmth  of  their  bodies  lying  close  together  being 
necessary  to  ward  off  the  cold  in  winter.  This  gave  rise  to 
a  custom  known  as  "bundling,"  whereby  a  stranger  or 
traveler  taken  in  over  night  slept  with  the  father,  mother, 
sons  and  daughters  the  same  as  though  a  member  of  the 
family.  The  young  man  who  came  to  woo  the  daughter 
thought  nothing  of  lying  on  the  floor  under  cover  with  her, 
but  the  custom  gave  rise  to  evil  consequences  and  after  a 
heated  controversy  the  practice  was  abandoned  in  the  clos- 
ing years  of  the  i8th  century. ^^ 

Each  plantation  in  the  Southern  colonies  was  largely 
a  small  community  of  itself,  employing  mechanics,  carpen- 
ters, coopers  and  laborers.  Each  was  a  little  social  and 
industrial  world  consisting  of  from  one  to  five  hundred 
people.  Washington's  plantation  at  Mt.  Vernon,  Virginia, 
was  a  type.     He  had  a  blacksmith  shop,  wood  burners  to 


i4Ibid,  Vol.  I,  pp.  274-275.  See  also  Fisher,  "Men,  Women  and 
Manners  in  Colonial  Times,"  Vol.  I,   pp.   208-209. 

isFisher,  "Men,  Women  and  Manners  in  Colonial  Times,"  Vol.  I, 
Chap.  II. 


126  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

supply  charcoal,  brickmakers,  carpenters,  masons,  a  flour 
mill,  coopers  and  a  schooner  to  carry  produce  to  market. 
He  also  employed  shoemakers  and  conducted  a  weaving 
establishment.^®  Chastellux,  a  French  traveler,  frequently 
comments  on  the  masses  of  the  poor  and  poverty-stricken 
people  he  saw  in  Virginia,  some  clothed  in  rags  and  living  in 
wretched  huts.  They  were  indolent  and  without  hope,  a 
result  of  the  degradation  that  slave  labor  gave  to  all  forms 
of  useful  effort,  and  from  them  came  many  of  the  "poor 
whites"  of  the  South  today.^^ 

Maryland  maintained  the  class  distinctions  that  were 
observed  everywhere.  Annapolis  was  the  center  of  the  col- 
ony where  the  planters  gathered  and  reveled  in  lavish  hos- 
pitality. Part  of  the  river  front  was  reserved  for  the 
residences  and  gardens  of  the  wealthy  class,  and  here  the 
class  distinctions  found  expression  in  the  streets.  "When 
the  gentlemen  were  masquerading  in  their  quarter,  the  com- 
mon people  were  not  even  permitted  to  be  in  the  streets  of 
it."^« 

Throughout  colonial  society  the  barbarous  criminal 
codes  were  borrowed  from  the  countries  of  Europe  and 
bore  heavily  on  the  unfortunates  convicted  of  petty  as  well 
as  serious  crimes.  The  list  of  crimes  punishable  by  death 
was  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  lo; 
in  New  York,  i6 ;  Virginia  and  later  Kentucky,  27 ;  in 
Pennsylvania,  20  on  first  conviction,  and  on  a  second  con- 
viction all  except  larceny  were  capital  crimes. 

The  colonies  generally  revised  their  constitutions  after 
1776,  yet  New  Hampshire  branded  burglars  with  a  B  on 


lelbid,  pp.  83-84.     See  also  "Documentary  History  of  American  In- 
dustrial Society,"  Vol.  n,  p.  321. 
iTlbid,   pp.    101-102. 
islbid.  Vol.  n,  p.  206. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  1 27 

the  right  hand  for  the  lirst  offense,  on  the  left  for  the  sec- 
ond offense  and  on  the  forehead  if  committed  on  Sunday. 

Massachusetts  branded  an  F  on  the  forehead  of  the 
forger  of  a  bank-bill ;  a  B  on  both  cheeks  for  the  second 
offense  of  burglary ;  a  T  on  both  cheeks  for  the  second  con- 
viction of  larceny,  and  M  on  the  forehead  for  manslaughter. 
The  perjurer  could  be  fined,  pilloried  or  whipped;  the  thief 
branded  for  a  second  offense  and  sentenced  to  hard  labor 
for  life  in  chains;  the  forger  was  whipped,  his  ears  cropped, 
and  he  imprisoned ;  the  counterfeiter  had  one  ear  cut  off, 
was  given  forty  lashes  on  the  march  to  the  gallows,  and 
made  to  stand  one  hour  with  the  rope  over  it. 

In  Connecticut  the  perjurer  stood  for  an  hour  with 
his  ears  nailed  to  the  pillory  when  unable  to  pay  a  fine.  He 
who  married  a  sister-in-law  was  punished  with  the  wife 
with  forty  lashes  on  the  bare  back  and  forced  to  wear  a 
letter  I  sewed  on  the  outside  of  arm  or  back. 

Delaware  followed  the  English  law  and  employed  the 
branding  irons,  too.  M  stood  for  manslaughter  and  T  for 
felony. 

In  North  Carolina  the  perjurer,  after  having  his  ears 
nailed  to  the  pillory,  was  released  at  the  expiration  of  an 
hour  by  having  them  cut  from  his  head. 

All  counties  in  Maryland  were  required  to  have  brand- 
ing irons:  S  for  seditious  libeler;  F  for  forger;  T  on  the 
left  hand  for  thief;  R  on  the  shoulder  for  a  vagabond  or 
rogue.  The  mutilations,  brandings  and  whipping  continued 
for  a  half  century  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence.^* 

For  minor  offenses  that  did  not  merit  the  death  penalty 
branding,  whipping,  cropping  the  ears,  standing  on  the  pil- 


loMcMaster,    in    American   Historical    Review,    Vol.    II,    article    en- 
titled "Old  Standards  of  Public  Morals." 


128  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

lory,  sitting  in  the  stocks,  or  ducking  were  the  common  pun- 
ishments. Paupers  who  received  aid  of  the  pubhc  authori- 
ties, their  wives  and  children,  must  wear  on  their  sleeve 
the  letter  P.  These  practices  continued  well  into  the  nine- 
teenth century.-*' 

In  New  England  the  Puritan  aristocracy  regretted  to 
see  the  children  of  the  workers  at  play  in  the  fields  and 
constantly  enacted  laws  to  secure  their  labor  power.  As 
early  as  1641  Plymouth  ordered  that  those  receiving  relief 
from  the  towns  and  having  children  the  township  shall  put 
the  latter  to  work.  Boston  in  1672  ordered  certain  persons 
to  place  their  children  out  as  indentured  servants.  // 
parents  refuse  the  town  officials  are  ordered  to  place  the 
children  "with  such  masters  as  they  shall  provide."  In  1682 
a  workhouse  was  ordered  built  to  employ  children  who 
"shamefully  spend  their  time  in  the  streets."  In  Connecti- 
cut children  at  play  are  often  bound  out  to  serve  masters ; 
boys  to  the  age  of  21,  and  girls  to  the  age  of  18,  or  till 
they  marry.  A  law  of  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts, 
in  1643,  makes  it  lawful  for  the  constable  to  whip  run- 
away bound  boys.  The  "uplift  movement"  continues  dur- 
ing the  next  century,  for  Boston  in  1720  appointed  a  com- 
mittee who  recommended  that  twenty  spinning  wheels  be 
provided  "for  such  children  as  should  be  sent  from  the 
almshouse."  Fifty  years  later  Mr.  William  Molineux  of 
Boston  asks  the  legislature  to  assist  him  in  his  plan  for 
"manufacturing  the  children's  labour  into  wearing  ap- 
parel" and  "employing  young  females  from  eight  years 
old  and  upzvard."  Before  the  close  of  the  century  manu- 
facturing was   developed   and   a   French   traveler  protests 


20McMaster,    "The  Acquisition   of  the  Political,   Social  and  Indus- 
trial  Rights  of  Man  in  America,"  pp.   36-40,  passim. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I29 

that  "men  congratulate  themselves  upon  making  early 
martyrs  of  these  innocent  creatures,  for  is  it  not  a  torment 
to  these  poor  little  beings  .  .  .  to  be  a  whole  day  and 
almost  every  day  of  their  lives  employed  at  the  same  work, 
in  an  obscure  and  infected  prison P"^^  New  England,  espe- 
cially Massachusetts,  was  a  hothouse  for  the  "immortal 
truths"  of  the  Declaration  and  other  gush  mouthed  by 
Adams,  Gerry  and  other  "patriots."  The  sweating  of 
women  and  children  became  a  marked  feature  of  New 
England  "democracy"  after  the  Revolution. 

"The  Body  of  Liberties,"  enacted  by  Massachusetts 
in  1641,  which  we  have  already  noticed,  seemed  to  have 
little  reference  to  the  men,  women  and  children  of  the 
poor.  With  wages  fixed  by  law,  most  of  the  men  disfran- 
chised, paupers  auctioned  off  in  the  streets  and  children 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  master  employers,  there  was  little 
in  "The  Body  of  Liberties"  for  the  working  people  to 
enthuse  over.  Within  sixteen  years  after  the  adoption  of 
this  code  the  Quakers  felt  its  blessings.  It  was  enacted  that 
banished  Quakers  who  returned  should  have  their  ears 
lopped  off,  and  for  the  third  offense  should  have  their 
tongues  pierced  with  red-hot  irons.  The  following  year 
the  death  penalty  was  substituted  and  four  Quakers  were 
hung  on  Boston  Common  within  two  years.  In  1660  the 
death  penalty  was  repealed  and  the  gentle  Ppritans  con- 
tented themselves  with  flogging  their  erring  brothers. -- 

The  "sombre  theology  of  New  England,"  where  the 
"atmosphere  was  black  with  sermons."  produced  the  dreary 
Puritan  Sunday.  To  run  on  Sunday  or  to  walk  in  one's 
garden,  to  cook,  travel,  make  beds,  sweep  house,  cut  hair 


2iSee  Abbott,    "Women   in  Industry,"   Appendix  A. 
22Thwaites,    "The  Colonies,"  p.  1G6. 


130  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

or  shave  was  to  break  the  law.  The  mother  who  kissed  her 
child  on  Sunday  or  on  fasting  day  offended  God  and  man. 
Dancing,  card-playing,  or  making  mince  pies  were  unlawful, 
while  only  the  drum,  trumpet  and  jewsharp  were  permitted 
as  musical  instruments.^^  The  minister  was  the  source  of 
all  knowledge,  the  Sabbath  began  with  sundown  on  Satur- 
day, the  tithing  man  collected  fees,  the  constable  arrested 
the  ungodly  if  they  remained  away  and  reported  them  if 
they  were  merry.  In  short,  it  was  a  time  when  it  was  im- 
pious to  be  happy  and  a  virtue  to  be  morose. 

We  may  pause  here  a  moment  and  by  way  of  contrast 
contemplate  the  lucrative  commerce  of  Puritan  merchants 
and  shippers  in  the  trade  in  rum  and  slaves,  which  is  dwelt 
on  more  at  length  in  another  chapter. 

A  still  had  been  erected  in  Boston  as  early  as  17 14, 
and  a  large  business  in  distilling  rum  developed  by  1735. 
Molasses  and  poor  sugar  were  transformed  into  rum  at 
Boston,  Newport  and  other  seaport  towns  and  exchanged 
for  negroes  by  these  merchants,  who  in  turn  sold  the 
blacks  for  handsome  profits.  Mixing  the  rum  with  water 
was  not  uncommon.  Captain  Potter,  about  1764,  orders 
that  his  rum  be  watered  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  sell 
by  short  measure  at  every  opportunity.  "All  society  was 
fouled  in  this  lust ;  it  was  influenced  by  the  passion  for 
wealth ;  it  was  callous  to  the  wrongs  of  imported  savage 
or  displaced  barbarian.  .  .  .  Cool,  shrewd,  sagacious 
merchants  vied  with  punctillious,  dogmatic  priests  in  pro- 
moting this  prostitution  of  industry."^* 

Peter  Faneuil,  who  founded  Faneuil  Hall,  was  one  of 


23Weeden,  "Social  and  Economic  History  of  New  England,"  Vol.  I, 
p.   223. 

24lbid,   Vol.  II,  pp.  459-472,  passim. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I3I 

those  who  engaged  in  this  trade  which,  together  with  sys- 
tematic smugghng,  enabled  him  to  accumulate  a  large  for- 
tune. He  smuggled  goods  from  Spain  and  shipped  brandy 
in  false  casks  as  rum.  These  Puritan  smugglers  and  law- 
breakers who  enforced  rigid  discipline  for  the  workers  of 
their  time  and  held  them  as  inferior  beings  in  church  and 
society,  pocketed  their  gains  from  smuggling  and  the  slave 
trade  and  consoled  themselves  with  the  belief  that  they  were 
engaged  in  "God's  work"  of  bringing  the  Africans  within 
reach  of  a  "gospel  dispensation." 

"They  rolled  the  whites  of  their  eyes  and  uttered  pious 
ejaculations  as  they  scanned  their  ledgers  and  wrote 
instructions  for  turning  rum  into  'Slops'  or  human  souls 
immaterially.  After  attending  to  such  matters  these  're- 
spectable' men  take  leave  of  their  captain,  and  'conclude 
with  committing  you  to  the  almighty  Disposer  of  all 
events.'  The  profanity  of  sailors  is  grateful  music  to  ears 
compelled  to  listen  to  the  prayers  of  such  damnable  hypo- 
crites."25 

Perhaps  the  debtors'  prison  was  the  most  atrocious  in- 
stitution provided  for  the  unfortunate  of  colonial  times, 
and  this,  like  restricted  suffrage  and  indentured  service, 
survived  well  into  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  administration  of  these  prisons  and  the  treatment  ac- 
corded working-men  reads  like  a  chapter  from  Stepniak's 
"Russia  Under  the  Czars."  In  fact,  one  gets  the  impres- 
sion that  the  Russian  jailers  must  have  become  acquainted 
with  the  cruelty  of  prison  regime  in  our  early  history  and 
adopted  some  practices  of  the  "Fathers."  McMaster's  ac- 
count of  these  prisons  is  a  sickening  one,  and  we  cannot  do 
better  than  give  it  here. 

25lbid,   p.   836. 


132  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

"There  is  indeed  scarce  a  scrap  of  information,"  he 
writes,  "bearing  upon  the  subject  extant  which  does  not 
go  to  prove  beyond  question  that  the  generation  which 
witnessed  the  Revolution  was  less  merciful  and  tender- 
hearted than  the  generation  which  witnessed  the  Civil  War. 
Our  ancestors,  it  is  true,  put  up  a  just  cry  of  horror  at 
the  brutal  treatment  of  their  captive  countrymen  in  the 
(British)  prison  ships  and  hulks.  .  .  .  Yet  even  then 
the  face  of  the  land  was  dotted  with  prisons  where  deeds 
of  cruelty  were  done,  in  comparison  with  which  the  foul- 
est acts  committed  in  the  hulks  sink  to  a  contemptible  in- 
significance. For  more  than  fifty  years  after  the  peace 
there  was  in  Connecticut  an  underground  prison  which 
surpassed  in  horrors  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  This  den, 
known  as  the  Newgate  prison,  was  in  an  old  worked-out 
copper  mine  in  the  hills  near  Granby.  There  in  little  pens 
of  wood  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  culprits  were  immured, 
their  feet  made  fast  to  iron  bars,  and  their  necks  chained 
to  beams  in  the  roof.  The  darkness  was  intense ;  the  caves 
reeked  with  filth ;  vermin  abounded ;  water  trickled  from 
the  roof  and  oozed  from  the  sides  of  the  caverns ;  huge 
masses  of  earth  were  constantly  falling  off.  In  the  damp- 
ness and  the  filth  the  clothing  of  the  prisoners  grezv  mouldy 
and  rotted  away,  and  their  limbs  became  stiff  with  rheu- 
matism. The  Newgate  prison  was  perhaps  the  worst  in 
the  country,  yet  in  every  county  were  jails  such  as  would 
now  be  thought  unfit  places  of  habitation  for  the  vilest 
and  most  loathsome  of  beasts.  .  .  .  Not  a  ray  of  light 
ever  penetrated  them.  In  jails  in  Massachusetts  the  cells 
were  so  small  that  the  prisoners  were  lodged  in  hammocks 
swung  one  over  the  other.  In  Philadelphia  the  keeps  were 
eighteen  by  twenty  feet,  and  so  crowded  that  at  night  each 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I33 

prisoner  had  a  space  of  six  feet   by    two    to    lie    down    in. 

"Into  such  pits  and  dungeons  all  classes  of  offenders 
of  both  sexes  were  indiscriminately  thrust.  It  is,  there- 
fore, not  at  all  surprising  that  they  became  seminaries  of 
every  conceivable  form  of  vice,  and  centres  of  the  most 
disgusting  diseases.  Prostitutes  plied  their  calling  openly 
in  the  presence  of  men  and  women  of  decent  station,  and 
guilty  of  no  crime  but  an  inability  to  pay  their  debts.   .    .    . 

"No  crime  known  to  the  law  brought  as  many  to  the 
jails  as  the  crime  of  debt,  and  the  class  most  likely  to  get 
into  debt  was  the  most  defenseless  and  dependent,  the 
great  body  of  servants,  of  artisans,  and  of  laborers,  those, 
in  short,  who  depended  on  their  daily  wages  for  their  daily 
bread.  One  hundred  years  ago  the  laborer  zvho  fell  from 
a  scaffold  or  lay  sick  of  a  fever  ivas  sure  to  be  seized  by 
the  sheriff  the  moment  he  recovered,  and  be  carried  to  jail 
for  the  bill  of  a  feiv  dollars  zvhich  had  been  run  np  during 
his  illness  at  the  huckster's  or  the  tavern. 

"Men  confined  as  witnesses  were  compelled  to  mingle 
with  the  forger  besmeared  with  the  filth  of  the  pillory, 
and  the  fornicator  streaming  with  blood  from  the  whipping 
post,  while  here  and  there  among  the  throng  were  culprits 
whose  ears  had  been  cropped,  or  whose  arms,  fresh  from 
the  branding  iron,  emitted  the  stench  of  scorched  flesh. 
The  treadmill  was  always  going.  The  pillory 
and  the  stocks  were  never  empty.  The  shears,  the  branding 
iron,  and  the  lash  were  never  idle  for  a  day.  In  Philadel- 
phia the  wheel-barrow  men  still  went  about  the  streets  in 
gangs,  or  appeared  with  huge  clogs  and  chains  hung  to 
their  necks. 

"The  misery  of  the  unfortunate  creatures  cooped  up 
in  the  cells,  even  in  the  most  humanely  kept  prisons,  sur- 


134  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

passes  in  horror  anything"  ever  recorded  in  liction.  No 
attendance  was  provided  for  the  sick.  No  clothes  were 
distributed  to  the  naked.  Such  a  thing  as  a  bed  was  rarely 
seen,  and  this  soon  became  so  foul  with  insects  that  the 
owner  dispensed  with  it  gladly.  Many  of  the  inmates  of 
the  prisons  passed  years  without  so  much  as  washing  them- 
selves. Their  hair  grew  long.  Their  bodies  were  covered 
with  scabs  and  lice,  and  emitted  a  horrible  stench.  Their 
clothing  rotted  from  their  backs  and  exposed  their  bodies 
tormented  with  all  manner  of  skin  diseases  and  a  yellow 
flesh  cracking  open  zvith  filth."-^ 

One  grows  sick  at  the  recital  of  these  horrors  and  the 
fist  clenches  when  we  reflect  that  vulgar  politicians  gather 
dupes  every  Fourth  of  July  to  extol  the  glories  of  the 
"patriots"  and  the  Revolution,  when  these  horrors  con- 
tinued for  fifty  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  And  here  again  the  dominant  po- 
litical parties  in  the  early  days  of  the  republic  were  silent 
regarding  these  atrocities.  So  were  the  "statesmen"  who 
formulated  the  policies  of  the  parties  and  determined  the 
issues  of  the  campaigns.  Not  until  the  rise  of  the  labor 
movement  Jn  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century 
did  the  "statesmen"  take  cognizance  of  this  system  of 
imprisoning  poor  men  for  debt  and  allowing  them  to  rot 
of  neglect  and  disease.  The  politicians  began  to  stir  then 
because  the  independent  political  action  of  the  workers 
threatened  some  of  their  jobs. 

The  debtors'  prisons  were  provided  expressly  for  poor 
men.  Murderers  and  counterfeiters  had  their  wants  gen- 
erally provided  for  by  the  state,  but  unless  the  poor  debtor 


2G]VfoMaster,    "History   of    the   People    of   the   United    States,"    Vol. 
I.  pp.  98-101. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  1 35 

was  provided  for  by  friends  or  charitable  societies,  he  was 
left  to  rot  in .  his  rags.  The  low  wages  paid  necessarily 
increased  this  class  of  "criminals"  and  they  were  helpless 
to  defend  themselves.  When  they  did  organize  to  improve 
their  lot  with  the  opening  years  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
they  ivere  frequently  tried  for  conspiracy  and  jailed.^'' 

The  numbers  in  debtors'  prisons  and  the  magnitude 
of  their  "crimes"  are  of  interest  to  their  descendants  of 
today.  In  i8i6  there  were  1,984  debtors  imprisoned  in 
New  York  City,  of  whom  1,129  owed  less  than  fifty  dollars 
and  729  owed  less  than  twenty-five  dollars  each.  "Every 
one  of  them  would  have  starved  to  death  but  for  the  kind- 
ness of  the  humane  society."  One  man  in  Vermont  owed 
a  firm  of  two,  fifty-four  cents.  By  dividing  the  debt  the  vic- 
tim was  imprisoned  on  two  counts  of  twenty-seven  cents 
each.  The  costs  piled  up  a  total  of  $14.54,  for  which  he 
was  held  responsible.  In  Boston — "the  cradle  of  liberty !" 
— between  1820  and  1822,  3,492  debtors  were  jailed  which 
affected  10,000  human  beings.  One  woman  was  taken 
from  her  home  and  two  children  for  a  debt  of  $3.60.  One 
man  was  imprisoned  thirty  years  and  a  fund  of  $3,000  was 
raised  "to  pay  the  jail  fees  and  costs  that  had  accumulated 
during  the  long  period  of  confinement/'  In  Philadelphia 
— "the  city  of  brotherly  love!" — in  1828,  1,085  debtors 
were  jailed ;  their  total  debts  were  $25,409 ;  amount  re- 
covered by  creditors,  $295 ;  cost  of  maintaining  the  prison, 
$285,000!  In  1831  the  same  city  held  forty  debtors  owing 
a  total  of  $23.  "One  man  ozved  two  cents,  another  seventy- 
two  cents."  This  penalizing  of  poverty  began  to  disappear 
in  response  to  the  early  labor  agitation,  the  last  states  to 


27See  Chapter  IX. 


136  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

abolish  it  being  Connecticut  in  1837,  Louisiana  in  1840, 
Missouri  in  1845,  Alabama  in  1848.-^ 

The  laws  and  the  legal  practices  of  the  time  were  ad- 
mirably arranged  so  that  only  the  poor  man  owing  a 
small  sum  should  go  to  jail,  while  the  wealthy  man  owing 
a  larger  amount  was  either  not  liable,  or  could  get  a  stay 
of  execution,  or  with  good  legal  talent  could  avoid  con- 
viction. An  old  law  of  Pennsylvania  gave  magistrates 
jurisdiction  without  appeal  in  cases  of  debt  under  forty 
shillings,  or  $5.33.  "When  the  debt  exceeded  that  sum  the 
debtor  was  entitled  to  a  stay  of  execution.  But  no  such 
privilege  was  accorded  the  wretch  zvho  owed  a  sixpence 
or  a  shilling.  .  .  ."^°  Law  and  its  enforcement  could 
not  be  better  calculated  to  render  the  rich  immune  and  to 
jail  the  helpless  and  dependent. 

The  federal  government  admirably  expressed  this  at- 
titude of  leniency  toward  the  capitalist  class.  It  followed 
the  policy  of  remitting  tariff  duties  to  the  trading  class 
for  periods  of  ten,  twelve  and  eighteen  months.  This  gave 
wealthy  traders  and  shippers  the  free  use  of  government 
money.  John  Jacob  Astor,  a  successful  swindler  and 
founder  of  the  Astor  fortune,  had  a  loan  of  over  $5,000,- 
000  from  this  source.  Sometimes  these  traders  would  fail 
— one  house  failed  owing  the  government  $3,000,000 — but 
in  no  case  were  these  capitalists  imprisoned  for  debt,  though 
they  never  paid  a  cent  they  owed.^''  This  happened  fre- 
quently during  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

This  review  of  the  status  of  workingmen  reveals  at 


28McMaster,  "The  Acquisition  of  the  Political,  Social  and  Industrial 
Rights  of  Man  in  America,"  pp.  63-66. 

29lbid,  p.  50. 

soMyers,  "History  of  the  Great  American  Fortunes,"  Vol.  I,  pp. 
79-80. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I37 

least  the  fact  that  civilization  in  America,  from  settlement 
times  down  to  a  period  within  the  memory  of  some  still 
living,  has  been  an  unbroken  development  of  aristocracy 
and  class  privileges.  Some  features  of  this  development, 
notably  white  slavery,  the  white  slave  trade,  and  debtors' 
prisons,  will  come  as  a  surprise  to  those  who  have  been  led 
to  look  on  the  past  as  a  "Golden  Age"  and  its  prominent 
men  as  heroic  tigures.  Our  examination  also  shows  that 
the  American  Revolution,  coming  in  the  name  of  "equality 
of  rights,"  constituted  no  break  in  the  forms  of  class  rule 
and  the  institutions  based  on  fraud  and  conquest.  These 
facts  serve  as  a  forceful  comment  on  the  advice  of  some 
men  whose  cry  is  "back  to  Jefferson"  or  "back  to  the 
Fathers."  To  gb  back  to  that  age — a  feat  by  the  way  as 
difficult  as  the  repeal  of  the  law  of  gravitation — would  be 
to  revive  a  servitude  and  a  slave  trade  in  blacks  and  whites, 
with  their  accompanying  political  subjection,  which  the  pro- 
gress of  a  century  has  abolished. 

It  would  he  to  surrender  the  achievements  of  the  zvork- 
ing  class  since  that  time,  for  it  zvas  the  zuorkers  of  brawn 
and  brain,  through  organisation,  sacrifice  and  martyrdom, 
that  abolished  the  debtors'  prison,  zvon  the  franchise,  abol- 
ished conspiracy  lazvs  and  zvon  the  right  to  associate  to- 
gether for  the  common  good  of  their  class. 

The  same  is  true  of  negro  slavery.  It  was  an  obscure 
workingman,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who,  on  the  first 
day  of  the  year  1831,  issued  a  little  sheet,  nine  by  four- 
teen inches,  The  Liberator,  making  a  demand  which  after 
some  thirty  years  of  hesitation,  compromise  and  betrayal, 
the  "statesmen"  had  to  carry  into  execution  in  the  exigency 
of  a  civil  war.  It  was  humble  men  like  Garrison  or  those 
like  Wendell   Phillips,   deserting  his  class  and  deserted  by 


138  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

it,  allowing  no  article  cursed  with  the  slave  system 
to  cross  his  threshold  ;^^  facing  hissing  mobs  organized  by 
the  "pillars  of  society,"  and  refusing  allegiance  to  a  con- 
stitution that  was  "a  league  with  death  and  a  covenant  with 
hell" — these  men  lashed  the  "statesmen"  on  to  the  over- 
throw of  black  servitude.  These  men,  and  the  unknown 
pioneers  of  the  labor  movement,  forced  the  issue  on  the 
evils  we  have  discussed  while  Washington,  Madison,  Clay, 
Calhoun,  Webster,  Buchanan  and  others  were  either  silent, 
or  apologized  for,  or  defended  the  institutions  of  their  class 
regime. 


3iSears,  "Wendell  Phillips,  Orator  and  Agitator,"  p.  365. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I39 

Chapter  VII 

Causes  of  the  American   Revolution 


Our  survey  of  historical  conditions  in  the  colonies 
gives  us  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  the  society  out  of  which 
came  the  movement  that  resulted  in  breaking  the  ties  of 
dependence  on  Great  Britain.  If  our  account  is  a  correct 
one,  we  can  only  retain  the  general  belief  that  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  was  a  popular  uprising  of  the  whole  people 
by  assuming  that  there  was  a  sudden  change  of  heart  on 
the  part  of  the  great  planters,  the  traders  in  black  and 
white  slaves,  and  other  sections  of  the  aristocracy.  But 
this  assumption  is  shattered  by  the  facts  which  our  in- 
vestigation has  revealed;  namely,  that  the  political  dis- 
franchisement of  the  workers,  the  auction  of  indentured 
whites  and  the  traffic  in  them,  the  horrors  of  the  debtors' 
prisons,  and  conspiracy  laws  against  organizations  of  labor, 
survived  long  after  the  Revolution  was  fought  and  zvon. 

This  consideration  also  disposes  of  the  historical  tra- 
ditions that  are  taught  children  in  the  schools  and  suggests 
that  another  explanation  must  be  found  for  the  causes  of 
the  American  Revolution.  Fortunately,  evidence  exists  in 
abundance  to  show  that  it  ivas  a  revolt  of  the  aristocracy 
fought  by  the  zvorkers  under  the  delusion  that  the  grandilo- 
quent phrases  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  implied 
greater  opportunities  and  liberties  for  the  long-suffering 
laborers.  This  war,  like  most  wars  in  history,  was  "  a  rich 
man's  war  and  a  poor  man's  fight."    Ruling  classes  always 


140  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

represent  a  minority  of  society  and  they  never,  as  a  whole, 
risk  their  lives  on  the  battlefield.  Unless  they  can  get  their 
slaves  to  fight  for  them,  wars  are  impossible.  The  work- 
ers have,  thus  far,  fought  the  battles  of  every  class  but 
their  own.  To  induce  them  to  do  so  it  is  necessary  to  dis- 
guise the  real  issue  under  glittering  phrases  like  those  of 
the  Declaration,  which  asserts  that  "all  men  are  created 
equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
inalienable  rights,"  etc.  Such  statements  are  calculated  to 
stir  the  blood  of  men  who  are  regarded  by  their  masters 
as  unequal  and  who  are  deprived  of  the  rights  declared 
to  be  malienable. 

But  the  civilization  of  that  day  was  such  a  shameless 
and  naked  system  of  class  domination  that  the  Revolution, 
as  we  shall  see,  was  far  from  being  a  popular  or  unani- 
mous uprising,  and  so  suspicious  were  the  workers  of  the 
real  designs  of  the  leaders  that,  with  all  the  pleadings  of 
the  latter,  great  difficulty  was  encountered  in  getting  enough 
enlistments  in  the  Continental  army  to  present  a  fighting 
force  to  the  British  invaders.  Many  who  did  enlist  did 
so  only  after  promises  of  certain  rewards.  But  even 
promised  rewards  did  not  prevent  constant  desertions, 
which  provoked  the  despair  of  Washington  revealed  by  him 
in  his  correspondence  with  Congress  and  with  personal 
friends. 

The  causes  of  the  Revolution  may  be  traced  to  the 
attitude  of  the  ruling  classes  of  Great  Britain  toward  the 
colonies.  From  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America  these 
classes  regarded  the  New  World  as  a  place  of  investment. 
As  early  as  165 1  a  navigation  act  was  passed  forbidding 
importation  of  goods  into  England  except  in  English  ships, 
or  ships  of  the  colony  exporting  the  goods,  and  another 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORV  I4I 

act  provided  that  no  goods  should  be  shipped  to  countries 
other  than  England  and  her  colonies.  This  aroused  the 
resentment  of  the  trading  classes  of  the  colonies  and  gave 
a  strong  impulse  to  smuggling  which  later  became  a  profit- 
able calling  for  many  of  these  traders. 

More  drastic  laws  were  passed  one  hundred  years 
later.  In  1750  Parliament  passed  acts  prohibiting  the  erec- 
tion of  any  mill  or  engine  for  slitting  or  rolling  iron,  or 
any  plating  forge  or  any  steel  furnace.  Hatters  were  not 
allowed  to  take  more  than  two  apprentices  at  a  time  or 
any  for  more  than  seven  years.  It  was  made  illegal  to 
manufacture  hats  or  woolens  in  one  colony  and  sell  in  an- 
other. These  laws  were  generally  violated  by  resorting  to 
smuggling.^ 

In  1764  further  laws  were  enacted  restricting  com- 
merce and  manufacture.  The  imposition  of  duties  aroused 
the  ire  of  the  commercial  class,  but  the  method  of  punish- 
ing violation  of  the  acts  increased  discontent.  The  smug- 
gler was  tried  in  the  courts  of  admiralty  and  deprived  of 
trial  by  jury.  The  judge,  who  was  a  creature  of  the  crown, 
was  paid  out  of  the  fines  which  he  himself  assessed  and 
so  had  every  reason  to  convict  upon  the  slightest  evidence. 
The  wealthy  smugglers  were  thus  the  victims  of  a  repres- 
sive policy,  the  spirit  of  which  they  rigidly  observed  in 
their  treatment  of  the  poor  classes.  It  may  be  said,  too, 
that  the  British  government  was  forced  to  abolish  trial  by 
jury  and  substitute  admiralty  courts  because  the  wealthy 
smugglers  exercised  such  power,  influence  and  terrorism 
that  fezu  juries  dared  to  convict  them. 


iThe  English  ruling-  class  acted  in  accord  with  the  mercantile 
theory  which  regarded  colonies  as  markets  for  the  products  of  the 
home  country  for  which  the  colonies  were  expected  to  supply  the  raw 
materials. — Howard,  "Preliminaries  of  the  Revolution,"  pp.  51-62,  pas- 
aim. 


142  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

In  spite  of  the  growing  discontent  of  the  influential 
classes,  the  British  government  continued  its  policy.  Navi- 
gation laws  closed  colonial  ports  against  foreign  vessels 
and  allowed  them  to  only  export  to  other  British  colonies. 
Duties  were  also  levied  on  trade  between  the  colonies. 
The  British  capitalists,  sweating  fortunes  out  of  their  zvork- 
ing  class  victims,  zvanted  no  competitors  in  the  colonies  to 
challenge  their  commerce  on  the  seas.  American  employers 
and  traders  wanted  the  unrestricted  opportunities  to  ex- 
ploit their  workers  zvhich  British  capitalists  were  enjoy- 
ing. It  was  a  quarrel  between  two  ruling  classes  divided 
by  a  vast  expanse  of  water,  and  each  envying  the  oppor- 
tunities of  the  other.  Commerce,  ship  building,  industry 
and  agriculture  had  developed  to  such  an  extent  at  the 
dawn  of  the  Revolution  that  these  acts  of  Parliament  be- 
came a  serious  menace  to  the  incomes  of  the  colonial 
masters. 

Smuggling  was  developed  to  a  fine  art.  A  pamphlet 
written  in  1774^  asserts  that  nearly  all  merchants  were 
smugglers  and  perjurers  and  "that  such  a  system  was  ruin- 
ing the  morals  of  the  country."^  In  fact,  smuggling  be- 
came so  popular  with  merchants  and  shippers  that  they  lost 
all  sense  of  gratitude  toward  Great  Britain  when  France 
was  endeavoring  to  annex  the  colonies  to  Canada — an  event 
which  the  colonial  aristocracy  dreaded.  While  Great  Brit- 
ain was  spending  large  sums  in  defending  the  colonies 
against  French  aggression,  "it  was  found  that  the  French 
fleets,  the  French  garrisons,  and  the  French  West  India 
islands,  were  systematically  supplied  with  large  quantities 
of  provisions  by  the  New  England  colonies.  .  .  .  The 
smuggling  was  even  defended  with  a  wonderful  cynicism  on 


2Fisher,   "True  History  of  the  Revolution,"  p.  42. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I43 

the  ground  that  it  was  good  policy  to  make  as  much  money 
as  possible  out  of  the  enemy."*  The  enormous  extent  of 
this  illicit  trade  with  the  enemy  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  total  revenue  collected  in  the  colonial  custom  houses 
amounted  to  between  i,ooo  and  2,000  pounds  a  year,  and 
the  cost  of  collecting  this  revenue  was  between  7,000  and 
8,000  pounds.*  The  colonial  merchants  with  French  or 
Dutch  passports  and  sometimes  under  flags  of  truce  traded 
with  the  enemy.  They  eased  their  consciences  with  the 
excuse  that  if  they  were  to  contribute  their  share  toward  the 
defense  the  money  must  come  from  this  illegal  trade.^ 

Writing  of  the  period  immediately  preceding  the  Revo- 
lution, Weeden  asserts  that  "Information  given  against 
smugglers  engaged  in  evading  the  revenue  would  cause  a 
riot,  and  one  informant  at  Newbury  was  tarred  and  feath- 
ered. An  importer  at  Newport  had  sworn  to  his  cargo  of 
molasses  at  50  hhds.  The  count  showed  more  than  80, 
though  some  had  been  landed  already.  The  cargo  was 
seized,  but  a  mob  in  disguise  came  at  night  and  took  away 
all  the  cargo  except  the  50  hhds.,  which  had  been  regularly 
entered.  Vessels  were  generally  brought  into  port  after 
dark,  their  cargoes  being  discharged  and  secreted  under 
cover  of  the  friendly  night."®  To  add  to  this  ingratitude, 
the  French  were  no  sooner  expelled  from  Canada  till  the 
smuggling  traders  openly  joined  in  the  chorus  for  separa- 
tion from  their  protector. 

Buckle's  judgment  of  the  vices  of  smuggling  and  the 
general  tendency  of  this  traffic,  though  directed  against  the 


sLecky,   "The  American  Revolution,"   p.   47. 
4lbid,  p.  52. 

BHoward,    "Preliminaries  of  the   Revolution,"    p.    71. 
eWeeden,  "Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,"  Vol.  11, 
p.  762. 


144  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

European  type,  applies  to  these  revolutionary  "patriots." 
He  says  "they  contaminated  the  surrounding  population; 
introduced  into  peaceful  villages  vices  formerly  unknown; 
caused  the  ruin  of  entire  families;  spread,  wherever  they 
came,  drunkenness,  theft  and  dissoluteness ;  and  familiar- 
ized their  associates  with  those  coarse  and  swinish  de- 
baucheries which  were  the  natural  habits  of  so  vagrant  and 
lawless  a  life."'^ 

The  Boston  Tea  Party,  which  has  inspired  so  much 
patriotic  oratory,  can  be  traced  to  the  practice  of  smuggling. 
The  tax  on  tea  made  it  very  profitable  for  smugglers  to 
deal  in  this  commodity.  The  trade  in  tea  was  largely  in 
the  hands  of  the  East  India  company,  a  chartered  corpora- 
tion of  Great  Britain.  John  Elancock  and  other  tea  mer- 
chants had  smuggled  large  quantities  of  tea  into  Boston 
and  were  doing  a  large  business.  In  the  meantime  the 
financial  afifairs  of  the  East  India  company  became  very 
precarious.  Its  stock  was  depreciating  and  it  was  feared 
that  the  collapse  of  the  company  would  bring  on  a  panic 
in  England.  There  were  17,000,000  pounds  of  the  East 
India  company's  tea  in  British  warehouses  for  which 
there  was  no  demand,  because  of  the  large  quantities  smug- 
gled into  the  colonies  from  Holland.  Parliament  decided 
to  repeal  the  tax  on  tea  and  the  New  England  smugglers 
became  panic  stricken.  But  the  masses  of  the  people  "were 
pleased  at  the  prospect  of  drinking  tea  at  less  expense 
than  ever."  The  repeal  of  the  tax  meant  that  the  East 
India  company  would  be  able  to  sell  tea  at  much  smaller 
prices  than  Hancock  and  his  fellow  smugglers  could.  Their 
profits  ivotild  not  only  he  lost,  hut  their  tea  zvould  rot  on 
their  hands.     Competition    zvith    the    British    corporation 


"Buckle,  "History  of  Civilization,"  Chap.  V. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I45 

ivould  bankrupt  them.  After  comparing  notes  Hancock, 
known  in  Boston  as  the  "Prince  of  Smugglers/'  with  his 
fellow  outlaws  disguised  as  Indians,  boarded  their  rival's 
ships  and  threw  the  dreaded  tea  into  the  harbor.^  In  other 
words,  if  the  'glorious  Tea  Party"  is  to  be  commended, 
Rockefeller  should  be  praised  for  burning  rival  refineries. 

Smuggling,  of  course,  was  not  confined  to  tea  alone, 
for  in  all  forms  of  trade  it  "proved  a  sure  road  to  wealth. 
In  every  town  prominent  characters  could  be  pointed  out, 
who,  when  the  states  were  under  British  rule,  had  con- 
stantly stowed  away  in  their  cellars  and  attics  goods  they 
would  have  been  loath  to  have  the  officers  of  the  customs 
to  see.  .  .  .Of  this  trade  Boston  was  long  the  center, 
and  many  a  merchant  of  high  repute  did  not  disdain  to 
engage  in  it.  Thus,  on  the  very  day  when  the  farmers  and 
ploughmen  of  Middlesex  drove  the  British  out  of  Lexing- 
ton, John  Hancock  was  to  have  stood  trial  for  defrauding 
the  customs. "'' 

One  historian^*'  speaks  of  the  "moral  grandeur"  of  the 
Boston  Tea  Party  and  regards  it  as  an  "effort  to  defend 
the  eternal  principles  of  natural  justice."  This  is  eternal 
nonsense.  Just  what  is  "eternal"  in  the  profits  of  tea 
smugglers  and  their  rival  exploiters,  the  coiner  of  eloquent 
phrases  leaves  unexplained. 


sFisher,  "True  History  of  the  American  Revolution,"  pp.  105-106; 
"Old  South  Leaflets,"  No.  68;  Wilson,  "A  History  of  the  American  Peo- 
ple," Vol.  n,  Chapter  U. 

aMcMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I, 
p.   63. 

loFiske,  "The  American  Revolution,"  p.  92.  "Hobbes  and  the 
philosophers,"  writes  Paul  Lafargue,  "who  speak  of  natural  right,  nat- 
ural religion,  natural  philosophy,  are  lending  to  Dame  Nature  their 
notions  of  right,  religion  and  philosophy,  which  are  anything  but  nat- 
ural. What  should  we  say  of  the  mathematician  who  should  attribute 
to  nature  his  concepts  of  the  metric  system  and  should  philosophize 
on  the  natural  meter  and  millimeter?" — -Lafargue,  "Social  and  Philo- 
sophical Studies,"  p.  117,  footnote. 

10 


146  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Other  influential  "pillars"  of  society  were  added  to 
the  forces  demanding  separation  from  Great  Britain  when 
that  government  laid  a  tax  on  rum  and  molasses.  This 
act  aroused  the  Puritan  slavers  of  New  England,  whose 
"eternal  principles"  and  profits  were  based  on  the  slave 
trade  in  negroes.  "If  the  infamy  of  holding  slaves  belongs 
to  the  South,"  writes  McMaster,  "the  greater  infamy  of 
supplying  slaves  must  be  shared  by  England  and  the  North. 
While  the  states  were  yet  colonies,  to  buy  negroes  and  sell 
them  into  slavery  had  become  a  source  of  profit  to  the  in- 
habitants of  many  New  England  towns.  .  .  .  Molas- 
ses brought  from  Jamaica  was  turned  to  rum ;  the  rum  dis- 
patched to  Africa  bought  negroes ;  the  negroes,  carried  to 
Jamaica  or  the  Southern  ports,  were  exchanged  for  molas- 
ses, which,  in  turn,  taken  back  to  New  England  was  quickly 
made  into  rum."^^  This  trade  was  seriously  hampered  by 
the  tax  mentioned  as  it  decreased  the  profits  of  the  slavers. 
The  rum  was  a  delicacy  also  much  prized  by  ministers  of 
God.^^  This  traffic  had  developed  early  in  the  history  of 
the  colonies  and  the  slave  owners  of  the  South  pointed  to 
it  as  an  example  of  the  hypocrisy  of  New  England  which 
denounced  slavery.  In  1736  Colonel  William  Byrd,  of  Vir- 
ginia, wrote  to  the  Earl  of  Egmont  the  following  sarcastic 
letter  regarding  the  pretensions  of  New  England  "de- 
mocracy": "Your  Lordp's  (Lordship's)  opinion  concerning 
Rum  and  Negroes  is  certainly  very  just,  and  your  excluding 
both  from  your  colony  of  Georgia  will  be  very  happy ;  tho' 
with  respect  to  Rum,  the  Saints  of  New  England  I  fear 
will  find  out  some  trick  to  evade  your  Act  of  Parliament."^^ 


iiMcMaster,    "History  of   the   People   of  the   United   States,"   Vol. 
II,  pp.   15-16. 

i2Thwaitep,   "The  Colonies,"  p.  185. 

isHart,    "Source  Book  of  American  History,"   pp.   119-120. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I47 

The  British  molasses  act  passed  in  1733  laid  a  heavy 
tax  on  West  India  imports  into  the  colonies  from  foreign 
countries,  and  seven  years  later  the  agent  of  Rhode  Island 
in  London  was  representing  the  opposition  to  the  act.^*  The 
act  was  intended  to  revive  the  stagnant  trade  of  the  British 
West  Indies  and  discourage  trade  with  French  and  Dutch 
rivals.^^ 

In  1764  the  Sugar  Act  was  renewed  and  the  duty  on 
molasses  reduced  with  the  expectation  that  the  smaller  rate 
would  produce  a  revenue.  Committees  of  correspondence 
became  active  in  opposition  to  the  act.  The  old  act  levied  a 
duty  of  6d.  per  gallon  on  molasses  imported  from  ports 
other  than  British,  which,  if  collected,  was  practically  pro- 
hibitive. Smuggling  brought  both  molasses  and  sugar  in 
free,  but  the  act  irritated  those  engaged  in  the  great  com- 
merce in  rum  and  negroes.  The  act  "swept  away  the  foun- 
dations of  trade  and  threatened  the  whole  economic  struc- 
ture of  New  England."^® 

The  distilleries  of  Boston  and  other  parts  of  the  New 
England  coast,  especially  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  became 
great  in  number.  There  were  twenty-two  stills  in  this 
town  and  Massachusetts  distilled  I5,cxx)  hogsheads  annu- 
ally." Rhode  Island  had  150  vessels  engaged  in  the  trade 
and  rum  was  the  main  article  exchanged  for  slaves  in 
Africa.  This  wretched  commerce  is  hardly  compatible  with 
the  sentiment  that  "all  men  are  created  equal,"  etc.  The 
combination  of  smugglers  and  slave  traders  in  New  England 


i4Weeden,  "Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,"  Vol. 
II,  pp.  583-584. 

isGreene,  "Provincial  America,"  p.  179. 

leweeden.  Vol.  II,  p.  753.  A  Boston  town  meeting  in  1764  pre- 
pared instructions,  written  by  Samuel  Adams,  advising  its  representa- 
tives to  oppose  enforcement  of  the  molasses  act. — Howard,  "Prelimin- 
aries of  the  Revolution,"  p.   110. 

iTDuBois,  "Suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade,"  pp.  27-28-29. 


148  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

exercised  considerable  influence  in  forming  opinion  favora- 
ble to  independence. 

In  October,  1774,  the  Continental  Congress,  seeming  to 
appreciate  the  contradiction  in  their  professions  respecting 
liberty  and  the  traffic  in  slaves  and  wishing  to  appear  well 
before  the  world,  passed  an  act  declaring,  "We  will  neither 
import  nor  purchase  any  slave  imported  after  the  first  day 
of  December  next."  But  it  is  notorious  that  the  slavers  con- 
tinued their  business  and  it  was  thirteen  years  before  Mas- 
sachusetts passed  an  act  prohibiting  it.^^  In  the  same  year 
Rhode  Island  passed  an  act  prohibiting  importation  of 
slaves.  The  preamble  stated  that  the  inhabitants  would  be 
inconsistent  to  hold  slaves  while  fighting  for  liberties  them- 
selves, and  then  inserted  a  clause  providing  "that  nothing 
in  this  act  shall  extend,  or  be  deemed  to  extend,"  to  the 
slave  trade.^^  Prohibiting  slavery  and  legalizing  the  slave 
trade  harmonized  with  the  interests  of  the  dealers  in  slaves 
and  rum. 

The  same  juggling  is  witnessed  in  adopting  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence.  The  original  draft  contained  a 
clause  charging  King  George  with  waging  "cruel  war 
against  human  nature  itself,  violating  its  most  sacred  rights 
of  life  and  liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people  who 
never  offended  him,  captivating  and  carrying  them  into 
slavery  into  another  hemisphere  or  to  incur  miserable  death 
in  their  transportation  thither."  The  Southern  delegates 
united  with  many  of  the  Northern  delegates  in  striking  out 
the  clause.  Jefferson,  writing  of  this  act,  says  that  "our 
Northern  brethren  .  .  .  felt  a  little  tender  under  these 
censures ;  for  tho'  their  people  have  very  few  slaves  them- 


isibid,  p.  45. 
lolbid,  p.  36. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I49 

selves,  yet  they  had  been  very  considerable  carriers  of  them 
to  others."'*^ 

The  Southern  planters,  though  slower  to  endorse  sep- 
aration, also  joined  for  motives  no  more  creditable  than 
those  actuating  the  Northern  traffickers  in  slaves  and  their 
colleagues,  the  merchant  smugglers.  Many  of  these  plant- 
ers were  in  debt  to  British  merchants  and  saw  in  the  Revo- 
lution an  opportunity  to  repudiate  their  debts.  A  century 
before  the  Revolution  the  Southern  planters  were  often 
deeply  in  debt  to  British  merchants,  owing  to  the  credit  sys- 
ten  of  transacting  business  and  the  long  delays  in  exchange 
between  the  two  countries.  In  1732  Parliament  passed  an 
act  to  protect  British  merchants,  to  whom  were  due  many 
debts  owing  by  colonial  merchants.  "British  merchants 
.  .  .  complained  of  legal  obstacles  in  the  collection  of 
debts  due  them  in  America."  The  act  provided  that  debts 
due  to  British  merchants  "might  be  proved  by  testimony 
taken  in  England"  and  making  colonial  real  estate  liable  to 
seizure  for  payment.^^ 

A  manifesto  was  issued  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
in  1774,  which  stated  that  "The  planters  are  greatly  in  ar- 
rears to  the  merchants;  a  stoppage  of  importation  (of 
slaves)  would  give  them  all  an  opportunity  to  extricate 
themselves  from  debt."^^ 

Wendell  Phillips  in  a  speech  delivered  in  Boston. 
1861,  summed  up  the  motives  of  both  planter  and  merchant 
in  demanding  independence.  With  all  of  his  admiration  for 
the  revolutionary  leaders  he  was  conscious  of  the  material 


20Hart,  "American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"  Vol.  II,  p.  539. 

2iGreeTie,  "Provincial  America,"  p.  180.  In  Glasgow  "not  less  than 
half  a  million  of  money  was  due  by  the  colonists  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia  alone  to  its  merchants." — Howard,  "Preliminaries  of  the  Rev- 
olution," pp.   162-163. 

22DuBois,   "Suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade,"  p.  44. 


150  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

interests  that  prompted  the  activity  of  the  two  classes  men- 
tioned. He  declared :  "It  is  not  always  .  .  .  ideas  or 
moral  principles  that  push  the  world  forward.  Selfish  inter- 
ests play  a  large  part  in  the  work.  Our  Revolution  of  1776 
succeeded  because  trade  and  wealth  joined  hands  with  prin- 
ciple and  enthusiasm — a  union  rare  in  the  history  of  revolu- 
tions. Northern  merchants  fretted  at  England's  refusal  to 
allow  them  direct  trade  zvith  Holland  and  the  West  Indies. 
Virginia  planters,  heavily  mortgaged,  luelcomed  anything 
that  zuould  postpone  payment  of  their  debts.  .  .  .  So 
merchant  and  planter  joined  heartily  .  .  .  to  get  inde- 
pendence. To  merchant  independence  meant  only  direct 
trade — to  planter  cheating  his  creditors."^^ 

The  home  government  also  endeavored  to  restrict  set- 
tlement along  the  coast,  as  the  farther  into  the  interior  the 
immigrants  went  the  more  difficult  it  was  to  tax  them  and 
to  retain  their  loyalty.  But  this  policy  also  interfered  with 
the  plans  of  land  speculators  whose  incomes  were  derived 
from  luring  men  into  the  wilderness.  The  more  people  the 
speculators  could  induce  to  go  West,  the  more  profits  they 
could  make  from  their  land  deals.  Washington,  Hamilton 
and  Morris  were  interested  in  land  speculation.  Washing- 
ton had  good  reasons  for  being  a  rebel,  as  he  had  surveyed 
lands  outside  the  royal  grant  and  in  exceeding  the  powers 
of  his  commission  was  liable  to  prosecution  as  a  law 
breaker.^* 

The  king's  proclamation  of  1763  had  forbidden  gov- 
ernors to  "grant  warrant  of  survey''  or  patents  for  lands 
beyond  the  sources  of  rivers  that  fiow  into  the  Atlantic  and 
prohibiting  private  persons  from  purchasing  or  settling  on 


23Phillips,   "Speeches,  Lectures  and  Addresses,"  Vol.  I,  p.  373. 
24Simons,  "Class  Struggles  In  America,"  p.  18. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  15I 

these  reserved  lands  under  a  heavy  penalty.  The  object  of 
this  action,  according  to  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough,  was  to 
confine  the  population  to  the  coast  lands  under  the  watchful 
eyes  of  the  ruling  class  and  to  keep  them  "within  reach  of 
the  trade  and  commerce"  of  Great  Britain."^ 

One  may  easily  understand  how  this  act  and  the  numer- 
ous acts  against  manufacturing  and  commerce  aroused  the 
land  speculating,  trading  and  manufacturing  classes.  But 
one  more  act  had  a  vital  influence  in  provoking  the  resent- 
ment of  all  those  who  held  indentured  servants  and  those 
engaged  in  the  servant  trade.  This  was  the  Stamp  Act  of 
1765,  and  so  far  as  the  writer  knows  no  historian  has  point- 
ed out  how  the  enforcement  of  this  act  threatened  the  entire 
system  of  indentured  service. 

This  act  affected  the  gains  of  those  interested  in  the 
traffic,  either  as  dealers  in  or  owners  of  servants.  The  act 
provided  that  the  full  sums  of  money  or  other  considera- 
tions agreed  upon  between  masters  and  servants  should  be 
correctly  entered  on  indentures  and  the  date  of  signing  be 
given.  The  penalty  for  violation  of  this  provision  was  a 
forfeit  of  double  the  sum  or  other  considerations  agreed 
upon.  Masters  or  mistresses  could  be  sued  at  any  time  dur- 
ing the  term  specified  in  indentures  for  violation  of  this  law, 
and  such  violation  rendered  such  indentures  void.  If  mas- 
ters or  mistresses  failed  to  pay  the  stamp  duties  on  inden- 
tures within  a  specified  time  then  the  servants  could  pay 
double  the  duty,  and  in  case  the  master  or  mistress  did  not 
repay  the  servant  within  three  months  on  demand,  the 
servant  could  sue  for  recovery  of  the  amount.  The  pay- 
ment of  double  duty  by  servants  also  released  them  from  all 
obligations    specified    in   the   indentures ;    they   were    "dis- 


25Howard,  "Preliminaries  of  the  Revolution,"  pp.  229-230. 


152  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

charged  from  all  actions,  penalties,  forfeitures  and  dam- 
ages for  not  serving  the  time  for  which  they  were  respec- 
tively bound,  contracted  for  or  agreed  to  serve."  x\ny 
printer,  stationer  or  other  persons  who  sold  indentures 
without  adding  a  warning  clause  stating  that  they  must  bear 
date  of  execution  and  the  terms  agreed  upon;  that  the  duty 
on  them  was  paid  and  a  receipt  given  on  the  back  of  inden- 
tures by  the  distributor  of  stamps,  or  his  substitute,  was 
liable  to  prosecution  and  to  forfeit  the  sum  of  ten  pounds.^® 

The  act  struck  at  the  entire  system  of  indentured  serv- 
ice and  the  traffic  based  upon  it.  Investments  in  servants 
became  more  hazardous  and  returns  from  their  labor  were 
not  as  certain.  The  "soul  drivers"  and  ship  masters  en- 
gaged in  the  servant  trade  could  not  but  feel  resentful  that 
their  incomes  were  jeopardized  by  this  act  of  Parliament. 
Not  that  its  enforcement  would  overthrow  this  servitude. 
But  it  did  place  obstacles  in  the  way  of  falsifying  inden- 
tures ;  it  taxed  the  system ;  it  gave  opportunity  for  many 
servants  to  be  released  from  service  when  their  owners 
evaded  the  duties  placed  on  indentures ;  and  had  its  influence 
in  transforming  masters,  who  held  white  laborers  in  servi- 
tude, into  rebels.  Yet  this  important  fact  is  almost  entirely 
ignored  by  writers  seeking  causes  for  the  Revolution. 

The  great  mass  of  laborers,  artisans  and  small  farmers 
were  indifferent  to  the  agitation  for  liberty  and  independ- 
ence. The  redemptioner  was  a  bond  slave  and  knew  that 
it  made  no  difference  whether  he  was  a  subject  of  the  Brit- 
ish crown  or  of  the  home  exploiters.  The  "free"  laborer 
did  not  enthuse,  for  the  laws  that  fixed  his  status  as  an 
underling  and  providing  imprisonment  for  debt  were  being 

26See  Hart   and   Channing,    "American  History  Leaflets,"    No.    21, 
May,  1895,  for  a  full  text  of  the  Stamp  Act. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I53 

enforced  by  the  very  "patriots"  who  were  talking  so  glibly 
about  independence.  The  slaves,  of  course,  were  dumb,  un- 
able to  speak  for  themselves,  and  nothing  in  the  Revolu- 
tion held  out  any  promise  of  release  for  them.  The  small 
farmers,  too,  were  on  the  whole  indifferent,  for  taxes  fell 
heavily  on  their  shoulders  and  the  high  prices  of  living  and 
excessive  rates  of  interest  made  them  suspicious  of  the 
coast  merchants  and  money  lenders.  The  lot  of  the  toilers 
of  every  class  was  not  to  be  envied,  and  though  having  little 
chance  to  secure  an  education,  their  experience  with  the 
wealthy  classes  taught  them  to  beware  when  the  masters 
came  bearing  gifts. 

Yet  it  was  necessary  to  draw  fighters  for  the  Revolu- 
tion from  the  ranks  of  the  subjected  population  if  a  struggle 
was  to  be  waged  at  all.  This  was  not  an  easy  task,  but  it 
was  accomplished  nevertheless.  Those  who  have  today  seen 
poor  wretches  half  clothed,  unemployed,  liable  to  eviction 
for  non-payment  of  rent  and  dodging  the  collector  of  a 
grocer's  bill,  and  patiently  listened  to  one  of  these  cheerful 
idiots  while  he  proved  the  existence  of  "prosperity,"  can 
understand  how  the  reasoning  powers  of  men  can  be  com- 
pletely suspended  under  the  influence  of  interested  dema- 
gogues. The  Declaration  of  Independence,  though  it  does 
not  mention  a  single  distinct  working  class  grievance,  by 
its  eloquent  phrases  deluded  large  numbers  into  the  belief 
that  a  new  era  was  dawning  for  them.  But  this  was  not  a 
unanimous  sentiment  by  any  means — either  of  the  poor  or 
the  wealthy  classes.  John  Adams  wrote  that  "New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  were  so  nearly  divided,  if  their  propen- 
sity was  not  against  us,  that  if  New  England  on  one  side 
and  Virginia  on  the  other  had  not  kept  them  in  awe,  they 
would  have  joined  the  British."     In  another  letter  he  de- 


154  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

clares,  "on  mature  deliberation  I  conclude  .  .  .  that 
more  than  one-third  of  influential  characters  were  against 
it."-^ 

In  fact,  the  Revolution  was  the  work  of  an  aggressive 
minority  "who  succeeded  in  committing  an  undecided  and 
fluctuating  majority  to  courses  for  which  they  had  little 
love,  and  leading  them  step  by  step  to  a  position  from  which 
it  was  impossible  to  recede."^*  Nor  did  the  "patriots"  rely 
on  persuasion  alone.  Tlw  more  effective  arguments  of  tar 
and  feathers,  physical  assault,  the  boycott  and  exile  were 
employed  against  those  who  regarded  the  claims  of  the 
smugglers  and  slavers  with  suspicion  or  openly  opposed 
them.  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that  the 
robed  tools  of  capitalist  power  in  the  courts  today  have  out- 
lawed the  peaceful  forms  of  boycott  sometimes  used  by 
labor  unions. 

The  wide  extent  and  character  of  the  violence  em- 
ployed by  Samuel  Adams  and  other  rebels  is  instructive. 
"Men  were  ridden  and  tossed  on  fence  rails ;  were  gagged 
and  bound  for  days  at  a  time ;  pelted  with  stones ;  fastened 
in  rooms  where  there  was  a  fire  with  the  chimney  stopped 
on  top ;  advertised  as  public  enemies,  so  that  they  would  be 
cut  oflf  from  all  dealing  with  their  neighbors.  They  had 
bullets  shot  into  their  bedrooms ;  money  or  valuable  plate 
extorted  to  save  them  from  violence.  .  .  .  Their  houses 
and  ships  were  burnt;  they  were  compelled  to  pay  the 
guards  who  watched  them  in  their  houses ;  and  when  carted 
about  for  the  mob  to  stare  at  and  abuse  they  were  com- 
pelled to  pay  something  at  every  town."^® 


27Faust,  "The  German  Element  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I,  p.  289. 

28Lecky,   "The  American  Revolution,"  p.  224. 

29Flsher,   "True  History  of  the  American  Resolution,"  p.   168. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I55 

This  reads  more  like  a  drunken  riot  than  the  acts  of 
men  believing  in  the  "inalienable  rights  of  man."  Chief 
Justice  and  Lieutenant  Governor  Hutchinson  of  Massa- 
chusetts, who  was  born  in  America,  was  eminent  as  a  his- 
torian, had  opposed  the  restrictive  acts  against  commerce 
and  the  Stamp  Act,  became  disgusted  with  these  rioters. 
He  paid  for  his  opposition  in  the  memorable  Hutchinson 
Riot  in  Boston,  August  26,  1765.  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  writes 
of  the  mob  besieging  Hutchinson's  house,  the  latter  barely 
escaping  serious  injury  or  death.  The  rioters  gutted  the 
house  and  destroyed  nearly  everything  of  value,  including 
some  records  and  rare  documents  of  great  value  to  his- 
torians. These  were  irreparable  losses  to  Hutchinson,  who 
was  occupied  in  writing  a  history  of  New  England.  He  was 
a  pathetic  figure  when  he  entered  court  next  day  with  tears 
in  his  eyes  and  clothed  in  garments,  part  of  which  he  was 
compelled  to  borrow.^"  The  "patriots"  evidently  had  their 
share  in  contributing  to  us  the  practice  of  lynch  law  which 
disgraces  the  United  States  today. 

Among  the  favored  classes  who  refused  support  to  the 
Revolution  may  be  mentioned  the  following: 

The  official  class  holding  various  positions  in  the  civil, 
military  and  naval  services  of  the  government. 

Colonial  politicians  who  believed  the  Revolution  could 
not  succeed  and  who  expected  their  loyalty  to  be  rewarded 
by  offices  and  titles  and  the  confiscated  estates  of  the  rebels, 
who  would  be  either  exiled  or  hung. 

Commercial  men  having  tangible  property  and  consid- 
erable to  lose,  who  would  rather  bear  the  restrictive  acts  of 
Parliament  than  to  stake  all  on  the  Revolution. 


soHart,   "American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"  Vol.   II,   pp. 
398-399. 


156  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Professional  men  such  as  clergymen,  physicians,  law- 
yers and  teachers,  a  clear  majority  of  whom  seem  to  have 
been  against  the  ultimate  measures  of  the  Revolution. 

Those  of  no  particular  classification,  who  by  habit  or 
training  were  conservative  and  opposed  any  change  in  the 
established  regime.^^ 

One  agency  established  to  promote  the  agitation  was 
the  secret  "committees  of  correspondence,"  which  enabled 
the  agitators  to  keep  in  communication  with  each  other. 
Much  of  the  violence  had  its  source  in  these  secret  groups. 
The  Continental  Congress  was  not  a  body  whose  members 
were  elected  by  popular  vote.  The  delegates  sent  by  Con- 
necticut, New  York  and  Maryland  were  chose  by  these 
committees.^-  The  legislatures  that  sent  delegates  were  all 
representative  of  property  for,  as  we  have  seen,  the  work- 
ers without  property  were  disfranchised.  The  committees 
were  "always  in  session  and  no  governor  could  dissolve  or 
prorogue"  them.^^  They  watched  the  movements  of  their 
opponents,  exchanged  information,  boycotted  their  enemies 
and  drove  Tories  to  Canada  or  England. 

By  silencing  their  enemies  through  terrorism,  or  exil- 
ing them  to  Canada  or  New  York,  which  was  largely  Tory 
in  sentiment ;  by  constant  appeals  to  patriotism,  threats, 
promises  of  the  rewards  and  glorious  future  to  be  realized, 
sufficient  numbers  of  adventurers,  politicians  and  poor  far- 
mers were  induced  to  enlist  and  present  the  appearance  of 
a  fighting  force  against  Great  Britain.  Though  pictures  of 
the  revolutionary  army  generally  present  its  recruits  in  neat 
uniforms,  in  reality  they  resembled  a  "Coxy  Army"  more 


3iSmith,   "The  Spirit  of  American  Government,"  pp.   15-16. 
32Fisher,    "True  History  of  the  American  Revolution,"  p.   123. 
33Fiske,   "Tlie  American  Revolution,"  p.  79. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  1 57 

than  anything  else.  Washington's  soldiers  were  a  ragged, 
ill-equipped,  undisciplined  crowd  of  men,  many  of  whom 
enlisted  half-heartedly  and  in  every  defeat  there  were  de- 
sertions. During  the  terrible  winter  at  Valley  Forge,  when 
they  nearly  starved  or  froze,  the  farmers  in  surrounding 
territory  daily  carted  provisions  to  the  British  army  in  Phil- 
adelphia. Washington's  scanty  rations  that  winter  were 
partly  secured  by  scouting  parties  capturing  these  supplies. 
The  army  was  not  a  large  one — about  25,000  men  at  one 
time,  but  the  number  frequently  declined  to  ten,  six  and 
even  four  thousand. 

An  interesting  fact  generally  ignored  by  American  his- 
torians is  that  Lord  Howe,  commander  of  the  British  forces, 
was  a  member  of  the  Whig  party,  which  sympathized  with 
the  revolutionists  and  defended  them  in  British  politics. 
Howe  conducted  his  campaign  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of 
Washington  and  his  generals.  The  British  general  delayed 
and  feasted  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  giving  ample 
opportunity  for  the  rebel  forces  to  make  the  best  of  their 
precarious  situation.  Hozve  could  have  annihilated  the 
rebels  at  Bunker  Hill,  Long  Island,  Brandywine,  and  espe- 
cially at  Valley  Forge,  had  he  any  intention  of  doing  so. 
When  he  was  recalled  Parliament  investigated  his  peculiar 
conduct  and  only  influential  friends  saved  him  from  punish- 
ment.^* 

A  horde  of  adventurers,  petty  grafters  and  other  de- 
signing men  fished  in  the  troubled  w^aters  of  the  Revolution 
and  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  armies  to  pick  up  what  loot 
they  could.  "Among  the  enterprising  men  who  had  thrown 
themselves  into  the  first  movement  of  the  Revolution  were 


34See  Fisher,  "True  History  of  the  American  Revolution,"  for  maps 
of  the  battles  and  an  extended  discussion  of  Howe's  campaign. 


158  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

many  of  broken  fortunes  and  doubtful  antecedents,  many 
ardent  speculators,  many  clever  and  unscrupulous  adven- 
turers. Such  men  found  in  .  .  .  the  sudden  fluctua- 
tions of  the  currency  ...  a  new  and  sinister  interest 
in  the  continuance  of  the  struggle."  One  adventurer  be- 
came a  brigadier  general  and  paid  debts  amounting  to 
nearly  8,000  pounds  with  1,000  pounds  of  gold  and  silver. 
Noah  Webster  observed  that  "The  first  visible  effect  of  an 
augmentation  of  the  medium  and  the  consequent  fluctuation 
of  value  was  a  host  of  jockeys,  who  followed  a  species  of 
commerce,  and  subsisted  on  the  ignorance  and  honesty  of 
the  country  people ;  or,  in  other  words,  upon  the  difference 
in  the  value  of  the  currency  in  different  places.  Perhaps 
we  may  safely  estimate  that  not  less  than  20,000  men  in 
America  left  honest  callings  and  applied  themselves  to  this 
knavish  traffic."^^ 

The  army  itself  was  demoralized  by  these  and  other 
similar  practices  and  it  became  difficult  to  maintain  dis- 
cipline. As  an  aid  in  this  direction  offending  soldiers  were 
given  one  hundred  lashes  or  more  on  the  naked  back  while 
tied  to  a  tree.  The  whip  was  formed  of  "several  knotted 
cords,  which  sometimes  cut  through  the  skin  at  every 
stroke."  Some  disobedient  soldiers  were  punished  "at  sev- 
eral different  times,  a  certain  number  of  stripes  repeated  at 
intervals  of  two  or  three  days,  in  which  case  the  wounds 
are  in  a  state  of  inflammation,  and  the  skin  rendered  more 
sensibly  tender ;  and  the  terror  of  the  punishment  is  greatly 
aggravated. "^^ 

One  other  consideration  we  have  to  offer  as  among  the 
contributing  causes  of  the  Revolution.    The  acts  restricting 


snijecky,    "The  American  Revolution,"   pp.   292-293. 
36Hart,   "American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,"  Vol.  II,  pp. 
493-494. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  1 59 

commerce  and  manufactures  were  aimed,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  the  British  ruling  class  against  the  colonial  ruling  class. 
This  was  sufficient  to  arouse  the  resentment  of  the  latter 
and  drive  most  of  them  to  revolt.  But  our  colonial  manu- 
facturers were  also  aware  of  the  great  advantages  which 
their  British  brethren  possessed  in  the  new  machinery  that 
Arkwright  and  others  were  inventing  across  the  sea.  Ma- 
chines for  carding  and  spinning  were  fast  displacing  the  old 
hand  processes  in  making  cloth.  The  small  skill  required 
to  operate  these  machines  enabled  the  British  factory  lords 
to  sweat  large  numbers  of  women  and  children.  To  guard 
this  advantage  the  British  Parliament  passed  acts  prohibit- 
ing the  exportation  of  machines,  plans  or  models  of  ma- 
chines or  any  tools  used  in  cotton  or  linen  manufacture, 
under  penalty  of  200  pounds.  Even  the  possession  of  them 
for  export  rendered  the  offender  liable  to  arrest.  Watt  was 
also  making  his  first  improvements  on  Newcomen's  engine. 

These  inventions  brought  with  them  the  crucifixion  of 
men,  women  and  children  of  the  working  class.  Children 
from  seven  to  twelve  and  fourteen  years  of  age  were 
worked  fourteen  and  sixteen  hours  per  day  under  brutal 
taskmasters.  Women  frequently  fainted  at  machines  or  gave 
birth  to  children  on  factory  floors.  The  workhouses  and 
almshouses  of  London  and  Birmingham  and  other  cities 
were  raided  for  children,  idiots  being  taken  with  the  rest. 
The  factories  became  torture  chambers  and  in  some  cases 
places  of  murder,  with  the  child  slaves  as  victims. 

Every  ship  and  every  mail  that  came  to  America 
brought  news  of  these  events  and  stimulated  the  desire  to 
apply  the  new  processes  here.  But  British  acts  stood  in 
the  way  and  we  have  already  noted  the  efforts  of  the  colo- 
nial masters  to  make  child  labor  profitable.     Although  the 


l6o  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

colonial  appetite  for  child  labor  was  whetted  by  the  indus- 
trial changes  in  England,  it  was  not  till  1789  that  the  new 
machinery  was  secured.  In  that  year  Samuel  Slater,  "The 
Father  of  American  Manufactures,"  established  the  first 
cotton  mill  in  this  country,  in  Rhode  Island,  and  all  of  his 
employes  ivcrc  children  between  seven  and  twelve  years  of 
age.'-''  From  that  time  the  profitable  exploitation  of  chil- 
dren became  one  of  the  "inalienable  rights  of  man."  Fur- 
thermore, the  second  act  of  the  first  United  States  Congress 
was  for  the  "encouragement  and  the  protection  of  manu- 
facturers" by  levying  a  protective  tariff,^^  and  Hamilton,  in 
his  famous  "Report  on  Manufactures,"  urged  that  "women 
and  children  are  rendered  more  useful  by  manufacturing 
establishments  than  they  otherivise  zvould  bt."^^  The 
"Fathers"  were  not  slow  to  follow  their  British  kin's  ex- 
ample after  they  had  settled  their  temporary  quarrel,  and 
were  free  to  take  the  child  from  the  cradle  and  the  woman 
from  the  home. 

From  the  foregoing  review  it  will  be  seen  that  the  mer- 
chant smugglers,  the  New  England  slavers,  the  land  specu- 
lators, the  Southern  planters,  the  money  lenders  and  a  host 
of  adventurers  with  itching  palms  were  interested  in 
fomenting  the  agitation  for  independence.  When  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  passes  from  eloquent  phrases  to 
an  enumeration  of  grievances  these  are  seen  to  be  ills  that 
affected  some  one  of  these  classes.  The  tyranny  of  George 
III  is  denounced ;  he  has  taken  away  their  charters,  hired 
Indians  in  the  war,  denied  them  trial  by  jury,  restricted 
their  commerce  and  industry,  kidnaped  their  citizens  on  the 


37Abbott,   "Women  in  Industry,"  p.  44. 

38Wright,  "The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States,"  p.  118. 

39Abbott,   "Women  in  Industry,"   p.  50. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  l6l 

high  seas,  quartered  armed  troops  among  them,  and  in  gen- 
eral denied  them  the  'liberties"  of  British  subjects. 

The  poor  classes,  composed  of  poor  farmers,  the 
pioneers  on  the  frontier,  the  bond  and  chattel  slaves,  the 
laborers  and  artisans,  could  have  drav/n  up  an  indictment 
against  these  "patriots"  and  included  in  it  the  following 
charges : 

//  Britain  kipiiaps  .Imerican  sailors  in  time  of  zvar, 
you  kidnap  us  in  Europe  in  times  of  peace  and  sell  us,  our 
zvives  and  children,  into  slavery;  if  Britain  hires  the  Indian 
as  a  soldier,  you  allozv  the  savage  to  scalp  us  on  the  frontier; 
if  Britain  suppresses  your  commerce,  you  suppress  our  right 
to  associate  and  deprive  us  of  the  franchise;  if  Britain  im- 
prisons your  sailors  in  her  ships,  you  imprison  us  for  debt 
and  allozv  us  to  rot  in  rags  and  filth;  if  Britain  has  taken 
azvay  your  charters  zve  knozv  zvhen  you  had  them  you  en- 
acted fugitive  lazvs  for  us  zvhen  zve  tried  to  escape  your 
clutches:  if  you  suffer  from  British  tyranny  zve  suffer  he- 
cause  you  give  us  no  lien  on  the  products  of  our  labor  and 
frequently  cheat  us  out  of  our  miserable  zvages;  zvhen  zve 
are  driven  to  steal  bread  you  place  us  in  the  pillory,  or  brand 
us  zjvith  irons,  zvhile  in  your  lazv  code  you  class  the  zvhite 
indentured  slave,  the  conquered  Indian  and  the  enslaved 
black  as  merchandise  to  be  bought  and  sold  like  cattle.  Your 
declaration  is  a  class  declaration.  So  is  ours.  Only  zve 
represent  the  toiling  masses  of  these  colonies  on  zvhose  skill, 
labor  and  sacrifice  your  pre-eminence  and  rule  have  been 
esfablisJied. 

Such  a  declaration  coming  from  the  masses  of  the  poor 

would  have  been  based  on  facts  and  would  set  in  bold  relief 

the  class  character  of  the  struggle  for  independence.     That 

it  is  a  true  estimate  of  the  historical  conditions  of  that  time 

11 


l62  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

will  become  apparent  in  the  next  chapter,  where  we  will 
consider  the  treatment  accorded  the  workers  after  having 
fought  the  battles  of  the  interested  and  ruling  classes  of  that 
time. 

That  there  were  men  who  favored  independence  from 
the  best  of  motives  no  one  will  deny.  That  the  Revolution 
was  necessary,  that  it  was  in  accord  with  human  progress, 
that  it  overthrew  barriers  to  the  further  development  of  so- 
ciety, are  also  conceded  truths.  But  that  it  was  a  spontane- 
ous uprising  of  all  the  people,  that  it  was  a  glorious  vindica- 
tion of  the  "rights  of  man,"  that  it  was  waged  by  demi- 
gods having  no  sinister  ends  in  view  and  no  unworthy  mo- 
tives to  conceal,  all  this  is  contradicted  by  the  facts  and  es- 
pecially by  events  that  followed  when  peace  was  declared. 
Fundamentally  it  was  a  struggle  between  two  ruling  classes 
whose  interests  clashed.  The  British  masters  displayed  poor 
judgment  in  dealing  with  their  fellow  masters  on  this  side 
of  the  sea.  The  laws  directed  against  colonial  shippers  and 
manufacturers  were  the  essence  of  folly.  They  could  have 
no  other  result  than  revolution,  for  these  laws  touched  the 
hearts — or  incomes,  which  is  the  same  thing — of  our  colo- 
nial ruling  class.  When  the  purse  of  the  exploiter  or  aris- 
tocrat is  threatened  with  depletion  all  the  furies  of  private 
gain  rage  within  him.  All  his  views  of  life  and  hope  of  the 
future  are  gauged  by  the  condition  of  his  money  till. 
Threaten  that  and  he  becomes  a  rebel ;  fill  it  and  he  remains 
an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  the  established  regime,  a  de- 
voted adherent  of  the  vilest  practices,  a  stout  defender  of 
institutions  that  drain  wealth  from  the  unpaid  toil  of 
others  and  pours  it  into  his  purse.  His  interests  were 
bound  to  the  revolutionary  cause ;  the  triumph  of  his  class 
meant  progress  until  the  twentieth  century,  when  changed 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  163 

conditions  make  his  rule  a  menace  to  society  and  a  danger 
to  civilization.  As  the  British  ruler  gave  way  to  him,  so  he 
today  must  give  way  to  the  wealth  producing  classes  who 
now  stand  as  the  incarnation  of  further  progress. 


164  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Chapter   VIII 

The  Constitutional  Convention, 
a  Conspiracy 


"It  is  not  too  much  to  say,"  writes  the  historian,  Fiske, 
"that  the  period  of  five  years  following  the  peace  of  1783 
was  the  most  critical  moment  in  all  the  history  of  the 
American  people."^  It  ivas  a  critical  period — for  the  smug- 
glers, speculators,  slavers  and  others  of  the  privileged 
classes,  for  it  seemed  to  these  that  the  great  landed  empire, 
tremendous  resources  and  power  which  the  Revolution  gave 
them  all  hung  in  the  balance  and  with  strong  possibility 
that  the  insurgent  poor  would  secure  these  advantages  for 
themselves.  The  workers  by  their  heroism  and  sacrifices 
at  Bunker  Hill  and  Yorktown;  by  their  sufferings  during 
the  terrible  winter  at  Valley  Forge  had  won  the  Revolution 
and  were  certainly  entitled  to  the  fruits  of  victory  or,  at 
least,  deserved  exceptional  consideration. 

But  the  last  shot  had  scarcely  been  fired  till  these  veter- 
ans, retracing  their  weary  steps  homeward,  were  confronted 
with  a  terrible  situation.  It  is  doubtful  whether  history 
affords  another  such  example  of  the  shameless  ingratitude 
and  contemptible  greed  displayed  by  a  ruling  class  toward 
its  benefactors  that  the  "Fathers"  displayed  toward  the  poor 
veterans  of  the  war.  The  farmers  and  laborers  found  that 
while  they  were  at  the  front  risking  their  lives  in  the  strug- 


iFiske,   "The  Critical   Period  of  American  History,"  p.  55. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  165 

gle  the  -wealthy  classes  were  confiscating  their  little  farms 
and  household  goods  for  debts  contracted  during  the  war 
and  imprisoning  thousands  for  debt.  The  rebellion  which 
this  process  of  confiscation  provoked  constitutes  the  "criti- 
cal period"  referred  to  by  Fiske.  With  this  historian,  as 
with  most  others,  the  poor  rebels  are  viewed  as  a  senseless 
mob  of  fanatics  for  not  submitting  quietly  to  the  wholesale 
confiscation  without  protest.. 

The  war,  like  all  wars,  left  the  country  devastated  and 
impoverished  and  tiie  distress  was  frightful  in  all  the  states. 
In  Vermont  "One-half  the  community  was  totally  bankrupt; 
the  other  half  was  plunged  in  the  depths  of  poverty.  The 
year  which  had  elapsed  since  the  affair  at  Yorktown  had 
not  brought  all  the  blessings  that  had  been  foretold."^  A  large 
part  of  the  country  had  been  laid  waste ;  commerce  was  all 
but  suspended  and  Great  Britain  still  maintained  the  policy 
of  commercial  antagonism  toward  her  late  colonies.  "What 
wealth  there  was  lay  in  the  hands  of  a  few  score  men.  The 
disparity  of  condition  between  a  laborer  and  a  Charles  Car- 
roll or  a  George  Washington  was  probably  greater  than  ex- 
ists today  between  a  laborer  and  a  Carnegie.  Employment 
was  scarce ;  the  circulating  medium  fluctuated  in  value ;  the 
workman  had  no  security  for  his  pay,  and  was  frequently 
defrauded.  Wages  were  paid  quarterly,  semi-annually  or 
annually.  If  the  workman  bought  goods  on  credit,  the 
debtors'  prison  yawned  for  him;  and,  if  he  was  imprisoned, 
his  food  and  comforts  had  to  be  supplied  by  private  char- 
ity."^ The  wage  of  common  laborers  had  fallen  to  fifty 
cents  a  day.    Knox  writing  to  Washington  in  1786  informed 


2McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  348. 

3W.  J.  Ghent,  "The  American  Workman's  Golden  Age,"  "The 
Forum,"  August,  1901. 


1 66  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

him  that  many  of  the  discontented  pay  little  or  no  taxes; 
"they  feel  at  once  their  own  poverty  compared  with  the 
opulent,"  and  are  ready  to  use  force.* 

Thousands  were  scarcely  able  to  keep  clothes  on  their 
backs  or  to  provide  their  families  with  the  most  common 
necessities.  The  money  was  in  the  hands  of  the  rich  and 
high  rates  of  interest  made  it  impossible  for  the  leather- 
breeched  mechanic  or  the  debt-ridden  farmer  to  borrow. 
The  sheriffs  were  selling  the  poor  farmers'  property  for 
debts  and  they  endeavored  to  evade  the  seizures  by  hiding 
furniture  or  other  goods,  driving  cattle  to  a  neighbor's 
pasture,  or  making  houses  and  small  farms  over  to  relatives. 
The  debtors'  prisons  were  glutted  with  victims.  In  New 
Hampshire  "It  was  then  the  fashion,  ...  as  indeed  it 
was  everywhere,  to  lock  men  up  in  jail  the  moment  they 
were  so  unfortunate  as  to  owe  their  fellows  a  sixpence  or  a 
shilling.  Had  this  law  been  rigorously  executed  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1785,  it  is  probable  that  not  far  from  two-thirds  of 
the  community  ivould  have  been  in  prisons."^ 

Each  colony  came  out  of  the  Revolution  as  an  independ- 
ent state,  its  loyalty  to  Congress  being  dependent  on  its  own 
will.  Under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  which  had  cre- 
ated the  Congress,  the  war  had  been  fought  to  a  successful 
issue.  It  had  raised  armies,  contracted  loans  and  levied 
taxes,  but  it  had  no  power  to  compel  the  affiliation  or  loyalty 
of  the  states.  It  was  a  product  of  military  necessity  hastily 
called  into  existence,  yet  in  spite  of  its  imperfections  it  had 
survived  the  stormy  period  of  war.  "It  could  ask  for  money 
but  not  compel  payment ;  it  could  enter  into  treaties  but  not 


4McLaughlin,  "The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution,"  pp.  150- 
155. 

sMcMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  343. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  167 

enforce  their  stipulations;  it  could  provide  for  raising  of 
armies  but  not  fill  their  ranks;  it  could  borrow  money  but 
take  no  proper  measures  for  repayment ;  it  could  advise  and 
recommend  but  not  command."® 

It  had  one  legislative  body,  the  Congress,  with  no  sen- 
ate, supreme  court  or  president  to  veto  its  acts.  After  the 
war  the  states,  controlled  by  the  property  owners,  proceeded 
with  legislation  regardless  of  their  neighbors.  Each  regu- 
lated commerce  and  levied  duties  in  its  own  interests.  If 
one  state  had  endeavored  to  close  her  ports  to  English 
goods  all  the  others  would  profit  by  her  sacrifice.  British 
ports  were  still  closed  against  American  merchants  unless 
they  patronized  English  ships.  Thirteen  different  forms  of 
legislation,  more  or  less  conflicting,  produced  anarchy  and 
division.  The  ruling  classes  were  more  or  less  divided  in 
their  scramble  for  spoils  and  their  opposing  jealousies  and 
interests  may  be  seen  from  the  following: 

"The  commerce  which  Massachusetts  found  it  to  her 
interest  to  encourage,  Virginia  found  it  to  her  interest  to 
restrict.  New  York  would  not  protect  the  trade  in  indigo 
and  pitch.  South  Carolina  cared  nothing  for  the  success 
of  the  fur  interests.  New  England  derived  great  revenues 
from  lumber,  oil  and  potashes;  Pennsylvania  from  corn 
and  grain,  and  were  in  nowise  concerned  as  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  trade  of  their  neighbors.  Articles  which 
Connecticut  and  New  Jersey  excluded  from  their  ports  by 
heavy  tonnage  duties  entered  New  York  with  scarcely  any 
other  charges  than  light  money."^ 

All  this  is  evidence  of  the  eagerness  of  each  section 
of  the  wealthy  classes  to  profit  out  of  existing  conditions 


eMcLaugrhlin,  "The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution,"  p.  501. 
TMcMaster,  "History,"  Vol.  1,  p.  207. 


l68  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

without  any  regard  to  the  interests  of  their  class  as  a  whole. 
That  this  is  not  a  biased  judgment  may  be  shown  by  com- 
petent authorities.  "There  was  everywhere,"  says  Wilson, 
"the  same  jealous  spirit,  the  same  striving  for  every  petty 
advantage,  the  same  alert  and  aggressive  selfiishness."'^  Von 
Hoist  is  even  more  positive.  "The  acquisitions  of  the  war," 
he  writes,  "were  looked  upon  as  so  much  booty,  of  which 
each  state  endeavored  to  secure  the  lion's  share,  without  the 
least  regard  for  the  well-being  or  honor  of  the  whole.  In 
several  instances,  those  who  were  zvilling  to  sell  even  the 
honor  of  their  ozvn  state  showed  a  bolder  front  and  grew 
noisier  in  the  hope  of  increasing  their  ozvn  personal  share 
of  the  booty  and  of  seeing  it  turned  as  soon  as  possible  into 
jingling  gold."^ 

But  the  necessity  for  unity  and  a  strong  centralized 
government  in  behalf  of  the  wealthy  classes  was  soon  re- 
vealed to  them  by  a  specter  that  appeared  in  the  midst  of 
their  petty  jealousies  and  scrambles  for  spoils.  The  army 
was  restless  for  its  pay  and  the  government's  finances  were 
at  a  low  ebb.  A  number  of  companies  were  on  the  verge 
of  mutiny ;  one  drove  Congress  out  of  Philadelphia  and  an- 
other threatened  uprising  of  veterans  required  the  influence 
of  Washington  to  quell.  In  fact,  by  1790  Great  Britain  had 
distributed  about  $16,000,000  among  about  4,000  of  her 
loyalists,  which  "seems  to  have  been  much  more  ample  than 
that  which  the  ragged  soldiers  of  our  Revolutionary  army 
ever  received  from  Congress. "^°  But  the  real  specter  was 
the  growing  discontent  of  the  poor  farmers  and  laborers 
who  failed  to  secure  all  the  blessings  the  Revolution  had 


sWoodrow  Wilson,  "History  of  the  American  People,"  Vol.  Ill,  p.  54. 
9Von  Hoist,   "Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I, 
40. 
loFiske,  "Critical  Period  of  American  History,"  p.  130. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  169 

promised.  Their  frightful  poverty  drove  them  to  despera- 
tion. Their  "inalienable  right  to  life''  was  a  sham;  their 
"liberty"  was  imprisonment  for  debt;  their  "pursuit  of  hap- 
piness" a  phantom.^' 

From  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  \'ermont,  New 
Hampshire  and  other  states,  alarming  news  came  of  the 
growing  restlessness  among  the  poor.  Mass  meetings  were 
being  held,  petitions  circulated  and  demands  made  of  legis- 
latures for  measures  of  relief.  Debts  had  been  contracted 
in  depreciated  currency  and  the  wealthy  classes  were  de- 
manding payment  in  gold.  Naturally,  the  poor  debtors  de- 
manded paper  currency  and  just  as  naturally  their  exploit- 
ers opposed  it.  The  more  paper  that  was  issued  the  more 
demoralized  the  currency  became.  Historians  have  gone 
into  hysterics  in  denouncing  this  demand  of  debtors  for 
cheap  money,  but  the  fact,  which  we  have  referred  to  be- 
fore, that  JVashington  and  other  land  speculators  bought 
up  millions  of  this  cheap  paper  and  palmed  it  ojf  on  the 
government  for  great  tracts  of  land,  is  generally  passed 
over  in  silence  or  commended  as  an  example  of  "farsighted 
thrift."^- 

In  some  states  men  were  on  the  march  to  the  seats  of 
county  or  state  governments,  many  of  them  armed  and  de- 
termined that  the  glorious  promises  should  be  in  some  meas- 


iiMcLaughlin,  "The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution,"  p.  140. 
A  French  traveler  in  Rliode  Island  mentions  idle  men  standing  with 
folded  arms  at  street  corners;  houses  in  ruins;  grass  growing  in  the 
streets;  windows  stuffed  with  rags,  and  discontent  everywhere. — p.  150. 

i2The  following  may  be  cited  as  an  example:  Prominent  officers 
of  the  army  organized  the  Ohio  Company,  a  land  speculating  company, 
in  1786.  "The  money  script  of  the  confederation  was  bought  up  and 
used  for  the  purchase  of  land  in  the  new  public  domain.  Subscrip- 
tions and  systematic  corporate  action  began  to  make  the  settlement  an 
enterprise  of  forethought  and  associated  effort,  like  the  settlement  of 
the  first  colonies  themselves."  Wilson,  "History  of  the  American  Peo- 
ple," Vol.  Ill,  p.  53.  "Enterprise  and  forethought!"  What  tender 
discrimination  in  favor  of  the  financial  "jockeys"  and  speculators  that 
Noah  Webster  declaimed  against! 


170  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ure  fulfilled.  Lawyers  were  hated  and  despised  for  their 
part  in  confiscating  wealth  in  payment  of  debts.  They  were 
overwhelmed  with  cases  and  the  courts  could  not  try  half 
of  them.^'^  The  debtors  exercised  considerable  influence  in 
a  number  of  states  and  in  Rhode  Island  half  a  million  dol- 
lars in  script  were  issued  which  began  to  depreciate.  Prices 
rose  rapidly.  The  city  merchants  were  raising  prices  and 
poor  farmers  saw  in  this  an  effort  to  defeat  paper  money. 
A  law  was  rushed  through  the  legislature  commanding 
every  one  to  accept  paper  as  an  equivalent  of  gold.  Viola- 
tions of  the  act  were  subject  to  a  fine  of  $500  and  loss  of 
the  right  of  suffrage.  The  city  merchants  closed  their  shops 
and  the  farmers  decided  not  to  send  any  produce  to  the 
cities.  They  tried  to  sell  in  Boston  and  New  York,  but  met 
opposition  in  these  cities.  Their  apples  rotted  and  they 
burned  corn  for  fuel.  The  farmers  were  threatened  with 
force  and  town  meetings  were  held  in  all  parts  of  the  state 
to  consider  the  grave  situation.  Farmers  became  bankrupt, 
merchants  left  the  state,  and  the  only  thing  certain  was  uni- 
versal uncertainty. 

The  drum  sounded  in  New  Hampshire  and  several 
hundred  men  armed  with  muskets,  swords  and  staves  en- 
tered Exeter  where  the  general  court  was  sitting.  They 
demanded  a  release  from  taxes  and  an  issue  of  paper 
money.  The  lower  house  wavered,  but  the  senate  standing 
firm,  the  rebels  were  routed  the  next  day. 

In  Vermont  demands  were  made  that  attorneys  be  ex- 
pelled from  the  courts,  that  debts  be  cancelled  and  threats 
made  that  if  relief  measures  were  not  passed  force  would 
be  employed.    Several  hundred  men  were  in  the  saddle  and 


i3McMaster,    "History   of   the   People  of  the  United   States,"   Vol. 
I,  p.  302. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I7I 

the  courthouse  at  Rutland  was  surrounded  with  armed  men 
led  by  Thomas  Lee.  He  had  fought  with  distinction  in  the 
Revolution,  had  risen  to  the  rank  of  colonel,  and  on  his 
arrival  home  had  been  thrown  into  prison  for  debt.  De- 
mands were  made  of  the  judges  and  after  a  few  clashes 
with  troops  the  rebels  were  dispersed.^* 

But  the  most  alarming  rebellion  took  place  in  Massa- 
chusetts, a  revolt  that  took  six  months  to  suppress  and  one 
that  sobered  the  ruling  classes  in  their  scramble  for  wealth. 
The  farmers  were  in  dire  distress,  for  their  corn  rotted  on 
the  ground.  Money  was  scarce  and  they  were  reduced  to 
the  expedient  of  barter.  Thousands  signed  pledges  to  re- 
sist any  court  that  attempted  to  take  their  property  and  to 
resist  the  public  sale  of  goods  that  had  been  taken  to  pay 
debts.  Courts  were  invaded  by  large  bodies  of  armed  men 
and  forced  to  suspend.  Daniel  Shays,  an  officer  in  the  Con- 
tinental army,  who  had  fought  at  Bunker  Hill,  was  chosen 
leader  and  the  revolt  grew  to  large  proportions.  The  legis- 
lature was  not  in  session ;  there  were  no  funds  to  pay  troops 
to  put  down  the  revolt,  but  "a  number  of  wealthy  gentle- 
men" advanced  sufficient  funds  for  the  purpose}^ 

The  rebellion  became  so  powerful  and  menacing  that 
it  attracted  the  attention  of  Congress.  That  body  gave  a 
neat  exhibition  of  "back  stairs  politics"  that  has  become 
memorable  in  the  secret  history  of  the  United  States.  Con- 
gress feared  that  the  insurgents  would  capture  the  national 


i4For  an  exhaustive  account  of  these  disturbances  and  "Shays' 
Rebellion,"  which  follows,  see  McMaster,  Vol.  I,  Chap.  HI,  and  Fiske, 
"Critical  Period  of  American  History,"  Chap.  V. 

The  novel  of  the  late  Edward  Bellamy,  entitled  "The  Duke  of 
Stockbridge,"  is  a  romance  of  Shays'  Rebellion  and  is  a  faithful  por- 
trayal of  the  social  and  economic  cqnditions  of  the  time.  The  vile 
debtors'  prisons  are  painted  with  shocking  realism  and  are  shown  to 
have  a  marked  influence  in  goading  the  workers  to  rebel  against 
their  exploiters. 

isMcMaster,  Vol.  I,  p.  319. 


172  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

arsenal  at  Springfield,  where  there  were  at  least  450  tons 
of  military  stores,  including  bayonets,  cannon,  powder,  shot 
and  shell.  The  arsenal  was  in  the  midst  of  the  discontented 
population  and  Secretary  of  War  Knox  was  directed  by 
Congress  to  go  to  Springfield  and  take  such  measures  as  he 
might  deem  necessary  to  protect  it.  Before  he  arrived  the 
rebels  had  already  confronted  Major  General  Shepard's 
troops,  "many  of  them  men  of  much  substance  both  in 
zvealth  and  character."^^  Shays  appeared  at  the  time  for 
assembling  the  court  and  a  conference  resulted  in  an  agree- 
ment that  both  sides  should  disband.  Knox  was  left  in  the 
dilemma  of  protecting  the  arsenal,  which  was  a  difficult 
task,  for  the  mere  knowledge  that  the  state  was  collecting 
troops  would  provoke  an  immediate  attack  from  the  rebels. 
On  the  other  hand,  Governor  Bowdoin  could  not  ask  for 
federal  forces  and  Congress  could  not  recruit  them  openly 
without  warning  the  rebels.  The  insurgents,  though  not 
active,  were  masters  of  the  situation. 

Knox  reported  the  situation  to  Congress  and  the  matter 
was  referred  to  a  committee.  The  committee  recommended 
an  increase  in  the  army  of  1,340  non-commissioned  officers 
and  privates.  This  would  make  the  total  force  2,040.  The 
report,  and  resolutions  accompanying  it,  was  adopted.  One 
would  expect  that  the  resolutions  would  refer  to  the  trou- 
bles in  Massachusetts,  but  instead  of  this  they  zvere  filled 
with  startling  reports  of  alleged  preparations  for  war  being 
made  by  several  Indian  nations.  This  report  was  intended 
for  popular  consumption  and  a  shield  to  cover  the  real  in- 
tentions of  Congress. 

The  following  day  a  secret  report  zvas  presented  by 


iGArticle    entitled    "Shays'    Rebellion,"    "Harper's    Magazine,"    Vol. 
XXIV,   p.   65G. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I73 

the  same  committee  and  adopted  by  Congress.  This  one 
dealt  frankly  with  Shays'  rebellion,  mentioned  the  perilous 
position  of  the  arsenal,  stated  that  "particular  circum- 
stances'' prevented  the  governor  and  council  from  asking 
for  aid  in  a  formal  manner,  that  troops  must  be  raised, 
but  that  the  insurrection  must  not  be  mentioned  as  a  rea- 
son for  raising  them  and  that  the  Indians  zvonld  serve  as  a 
pretext. 

Congress  unanimously  adopted  a  proposal  of  the  treas- 
ury department  that  a  requisition  of  $530,000  in  specie  be 
laid  in  due  quotas  on  the  states.  "On  the  credit  of  this 
requisition  a  loan  of  $500,000,  bearing  interest  at  six  per 
cent,  might  at  once  be  opened."  To  stimulate  subscriptions 
to  the  loan  Congress  "ivarned  the  zvealthy  men  of  Nezv  Eng- 
land to  contribute  generously,  unless  they  wished  to  see  the 
nezv  recruits  mutiny  for  lack  of  pay  and  go  over  to  the  in- 
surgents." GENERAL  LINCOLN  PERSONALLY  SO- 
LICITED SUBSCRIPTIONS  FROM  THE  WEALTHY 
MEN  OF  BOSTON  AND  OTHER  TOWNS,  "TELL- 
ING THE  CONTRIBUTORS  THAT  IT  WAS  SIMPLY 
A  QUESTION  OF  ADVANCING  A  PART  OF  THEIR 
PROPERTY  IN  ORDER  TO  SAVE  THE  REST !" 

The  secret  journals  of  Congress  contain  the  following 
expression  of  fear  of  mutiny  and  trust  in  moneyed  men : 
Congress  thought  that  it  "would  not  hazard  the  perilous 
step  of  putting  arms  into  the  hands  of  men  whose  fidelity 
must  in  some  degree  depend  on  the  faithful  payment  of 
their  wages,  had  they  not  the  fullest  confidence  .  .  . 
of  the  most  liberal  exertions  of  the  money  holders  in  the 
state  of  Massachusetts  and  the  other  states  in  filling  the 
loans  authorized  by  the  resolve  of  this  date."^^ 

iTMcLaughlin,   "The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution,"  p.  165. 


174  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

On  October  22d,  Knox  notified  Governor  Bowdoin  oi 
the  quota  of  troops  required  of  Massachusetts  and  the  gov- 
ernor, in  transmitting  the  information  to  the  general  court, 
enlarged  on  the  dangers  of  an  Indian  war.  But  the  fol- 
lowers of  Shays  throughout  the  state  suspected  the  troops 
were  meant  for  them  and  not  the  Indians.  As  Gerry  wrote 
to  King:  "Some  of  the  country  members  laugh  and  say 
the  Indian  war  is  only  a  political  one  to  obtain  a  standing 
army."  However,  the  troops  were  secured  by  the  money 
advanced  by  rich  men,  some  of  whom  enlisted  to  crush  the 
rebellion.  Attacks  and  counter  attacks  were  made  extend- 
ing over  six  months  before  the  revolt  was  crushed.  The 
rebels  had  no  funds  or  provisions  and  in  the  final  rout  some 
were  frozen  to  death  and  others  died  of  hunger  and  ex- 
posure. A  price  was  placed  on  Shays'  head  and  a  large 
number  arrested,  of  whom  300  were  pardoned,  14  sentenced 
to  death,  eight  of  these  being  pardoned  and  the  remainder 
reprieved  conditionally.^"  As  a  fitting  climax  to  this  his- 
toric drama  the  city  of  Boston,  a  few  years  ago,  erected  a 
memorial  tablet  in  memory  of  Daniel  Shays ! 

Just  as  in  Bacon's  Rebellion  more  than  100  years  before, 
the  followers  of  Shays  were  charged  by  the  wealthy  classes 
with  being  communists  prompted  with  the  desire  to  over- 
throw all  authority  and  property.  This  recalls  a  brilliant 
passage  in  the  "Communist  Manifesto"  of  Marx  and  En- 
gels.  "Where  is  the  party  in  opposition?"  they  ask,  "that 
has  not  been  decried  as  communistic  by  its  opponents  in 
power?  Where  the  opposition  that  has  not  hurled  back 
the  branding  reproach  of  Communism,  against  the  more 


isFor  an  account  of  the  secret  action  of  Congress  see  an  article 
by  Joseph  Parlter  Warren  in  the  "American  Historical  Review,"  Vol. 
XI.  His  article  is  based  on  the  "Secret  Journals  of  Congiess"  now 
being  published  by  the  United  States  government.  Fiske  and  Mc- 
Laughlin also  make  an  incidental  reference  to  this  secret  juggling. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I75 

advanced  opposition  parties,  as  well  as  against  its  reaction- 
ary adversaries?" 

These  rebellions  taught  the  ruling  classes  that  their 
supremacy  was  not  secure  and  that  a  strong  unified  govern- 
ment was  necessary  to  prevent  the  capture  of  the  state 
governments  by  those  of  the  debtor  class  who  were  still 
able  to  qualify  for  the  sulTrage.  The  Continental  Congress 
was  nearly  dead  and  there  appeared  no  legal  method  to 
secure  the  changes  the  ruling  classes  wanted.  But  just  as 
the  rulers  in  settlement  times  did  not  hesitate  at  fraud,  force 
and  confiscation  to  secure  the  natural  resources,  so  the 
"Fathers"  did  not  hesitate  to  employ  the  same  means  to 
attain  their  ends.  Besides,  they  were  confident  that  Shays 
had  "intended,  if  possible,  to  seize  the  capital,  take  posses- 
sion of  the  archives,  and  proclaim  a  provisional  govern- 
ment."^*^ Nor  was  this  the  only  danger  that  filled  the 
wealthy  "patriots"  with  dread,  "For  the  progress  of  the  in- 
surrection in  the  autumn  in  Vermont,  New  Hampshire  and 
Massachusetts,  as  well  as  the  troubles  in  Rhode  Island," 
aroused  the  fear  "that  the  insurgents  in  these  states  might 
join  forces,  and  in  some  way  kindle  a  flame  that  zvould  run 
through  the  land."-^  Samuel  Adams,  who  had  led  tar  and 
feather  parties  in  Boston,  expressed  the  vengeance  felt  by 
the  wealthy  when,  as  president  of  the  Massachusetts  sen- 
ate, he  said :  "The  man  who  dares  to  rebel  against  the  laws 
of  a  republic  (  !)  ought  to  suffer  death. "^^  In  other  words, 
it  was  glorious  to  oppose  a  foreign  ruling  class,  but  a  crime 
to  rebel  against  the  domestic  type. 

All  the  leading  authorities  agree  that  these  rebellions, 
and  particularly  the  one  in  Massachusetts,  had  a  great  in- 


i9"Harper's  Magazine,"  XXTV,  p.  658. 

aoFiske,   "Critical  Period  of  American  History,"  p.  185. 

2ilbld,  p.  184. 


176  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

fluence  in  driving  the  "Fathers"  to  the  Constitutional  con- 
vention which  assembled  in  Philadelphia  in  1787.  This 
gathering  had  no  more  power  to  give  a  new  constitution 
to  the  United  States  than  an  old  maid's  sewing  circle  had. 
For  a  long  time  there  had  been  some  dispute  between 
Maryland  and  Virginia  as  to  the  regulation  of  trade  on 
the  i'otomac  river.  In  1785  Washington  "became  president 
of  a  company  for  extending  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac 
and  James  rivers;"--  and  commissioners  of  the  two  states 
who  met  in  March  at  Alexandria,  adjourned  to  Mount  \'er- 
non,  Washington's  home,  at  his  request.  Washington  was 
not  a  delegate,  but  his  corporation  had  pressed  the  naviga- 
tion questions  on  the  attention  of  the  two  states  and  he  was 
admitted  to  the  conference.-"  Out  of  this  meeting  held  in 
response  to  the  corporation's  activity,  came  a  series  of 
meetings  to  consider  the  commercial  interests  of  the  states. 

James  Madison  then  "steered"  a  resolution  through 
the  Virginia  house  which,  when  reported  by  the  Committee 
on  Commerce,  urged  all  states  to  send  commissioners  to  a 
convention  in  Philadelphia  "to  provide  efTectually  for  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  United  States."  The  conven- 
tion was  endorsed  by  Congress  which,  in  a  resolution 
adopted  February  21,  1787,  limited  the  convention's  busi- 
ness to  "the  sole  and  express  purpose  of  revising  the  Arti- 
cles of  Confederation."  It  is  well  to  remember  these  in- 
structions and  note  how  the  men  who  accepted  them  ob- 
served them  when  they  took  up  their  work.  Article  13  of 
the  Articles  provided  that  no  alteration  could  be  made 
unless  "afterwards  confirmed  by  the  legislatures  of  every 


22Fiske,    "Critical  Period  of  American  History,"  p.   213. 
23Wilson,  "History  of  the  American  People,"  Vol.  in,  p.  61. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  17/ 

State."  We  shall  note  how  the  "Fathers"  observed  this 
provision  also. 

On  assembling  in  Philadelphia  in  May  the  delegates 
closed  the  doors  of  the  convention  to  the  outside  world, 
made  it  a  secret  body,  and  threw  their  instructions  in  the 
waste  basket.  "It  was  plain  from  the  first  days  of  the  con- 
vention that  a  goodly  number  of  the  delegates — and  among 
them  many  of  the  most  distinguished  men — would  not  limit 
themselves  to  a  literal  interpretation  of  their  powers."-* 
Fiske  regards  this  violation  of  instructions  as  a  "fortunate 
circumstance,''-^  as  indeed  it  was,  for  only  by  such  treach- 
ery could  the  delegates  frame  the  scheme  of  government 
which  they  had  in  mind.  They  were  there  to  establish  a 
government  that  would  suppress  poor  debtors'  revolts  and 
enthrone  property  more  securely.  Washington  had  already 
expressed  his  panic  in  a  letter  to  Secretary  of  War  Knox. 
"There  are  combustibles,"  he  wrote,  "in  every  state  to  which 
a  spark  might  set  fire."-^  Violation  of  instructions  was, 
therefore,  preferable  to  the  possibility  of  debtors'  control 
of  the  states. 

There  were  fifty- five  delegates  present,  all  of  them  dis- 
tinguished for  wealth  or  family.  The  convention  was 
pledged  to  secrecy  and  the  rules  provided  that  no  member 
should  consult  with  the  outside  world  or  take  any  record 
from  the  official  minutes  without  unanimous  consent.  For 
four  months  the  delegates  met  and  discussed,  but  the  peo- 
ple, eagerly  waiting  to  hear  what  was  transpiring,  could  get 
no  word  of  what  was  said  or  done.  In  fact,  "just  what 
was  said  and  done  in  this  secret  conclave  was  not  revealed 


24Von  Hoist,    "Constitutional   History  of  the  United   States."   Vol. 
I,  p.  50. 

25Fiske,   "Critical  Period  of  American  History,"  p.  98. 
26Von  Hoist,  p.  46. 

12 


178  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

until  fifty  years  had  passed,  and  the  aged  James  Madison, 
the  last  survivor  who  sat  there,  had  been  gathered  to  his 
fathers."'^'' 

The  reason  why  the  proceedings  were  not  made  public 
till  a  half  century  later  is  apparent.  If  the  debt-ridden 
masses  knew  what  the  speakers  had  said  behind  closed 
doors  it  is  more  than  probable  that  drums  would  have 
again  called  them  forth  to  unseat  the  usurping  aristocrats. 
So  fearful  were  some  that  the  official  minutes  might  be- 
come public  that  the  suggestion  was  made  to  destroy 
them!-^  But  this  act  of  vandalism  was  averted  by  placing 
the  proceedings  in  the  hands  of  Washington,  who  presided 
over  the  convention,  "subject  to  the  order  of  Congress,  if 
ever  formed  under  the  constitution." 

Madison's  "Journal  of  the  Constitutional  Convention" 
is  our  chief  source  of  information  regarding  the  proceed- 
ings, and  as  he  was  aggressive  in  every  move  to  eliminate 
the  masses  from  any  share  in  controlling  the  government, 
we  may  be  sure  that  he  endeavored  to  place  himself  and 
colleagues  in  as  favorable  light  as  possible.  He  informs  his 
readers  that  he  took  notes  because  of  the  value  he  knew 
they  would  be  to  future  generations.  His  "Journal"  is  filled 
with  speeches  expressing  contempt  for  the  aspirations  of 
the  masses  and  he  reports  himself  uttering  like  sentiments. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  in  his  record  is  the  fact 
that  Randolph  presented  a  plan  of  government  that  com- 
pletely abolished  the  old  Confederation  and  was  in  plain 
violation  of  instructions  which  limited  the  delegates  to  a 
revision  of  the  Articles  only.     Attention    was    repeatedly 


27Fiske,   "Critical  Period  of  American  History,"  p.  229. 
28]VTadison,    "Journal    of    tlie    Constitutional    Convention,"    Vol.    II, 
p.    748. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I79 

called  to  this  violation  by  Patterson  of  New  Jersey,  and 
others.  The  usual  answer  to  this  was  to  point  to  Shays' 
Rebellion  and  the  terror  of  working  class  rule.  Those  hav- 
ing some  qualms  of  conscience  were  silenced  by  this  dread 
and  the  secret  conspiratory  work  went  on. 

The  convention  was  far  from  being  harmonious,  as 
each  interest  fought  hard  for  its  "rights."  But  one  com- 
mon purpose  was  expressed  by  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  speakers.  This  was  that  the  masses  should  be  ex- 
cluded as  much  as  possible  from  any  control  of  the  govern- 
ment. Some  of  them  spoke  as  though  the  workers  did  not 
exist  at  all.  Madison,  in  reviewing  the  classes  to  be  pro- 
vided for,  could  only  find  the  following:  "The  three  prin- 
ciple classes  into  which  our  citizens  are  divisible  were  the 
landed,  the  commercial  and  the  manufacturing."^''  Work- 
ingmen  are  not  worth  mentioning  except  as  vandals,  for 
later  he  says :  "In  future  time,  a  great  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple will  not  only  he  without  landed  hut  any  other  sort  of 
property.  These  will  combine,  under  the  influence  of  their 
common  situation — in  which  case  the  rights  of  property 
and  the  public  liberty  will  not  be  secure  in  their  hands. "^° 

Charles  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina,  agrees  with  Mad- 
ison that  the  workers  are  not  worth  considering,  but  enumer- 
ates the  three  worthy  classes  as  the  professional,  the  landed 
and  the  commercial.^^  Madison  also  warns  his  fellow  aris- 
tocrats that  "There  will  be,  particularly,  the  distinction  be- 
tween rich  and  poor.  .  .  .  An  increase  in  population 
will  of  necessity  increase  the  proportion  of  those  who  will 
labor  under  all  the  hardships  of  life,  and  secretly  sigh  for 


29lbid,  p.  440. 
solbid,  p.  470. 
3ilbid,  Vol.  I,  p.  234. 


l80  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

a  more  equal  distribution  of  its  blessings."^-  Therefore,  we 
must  have  a  government  that  will  thwart  these  aspirations 
of  the  poor. 

Dickenson,  of  Delaware,  also  considers  property  own- 
ers "as  the  best  guardians  of  liberty;  and  the  restriction 
of  the  right  (of  suffrage)  to  them  as  a  necessary  defense 
against  the  dangerous  influence  of  those  multitudes  with- 
out property  and  without  principle  (!),  with  which  our 
country,  like  all  others,  will  in  time  abound. "^^  Pinckney 
advises  that  the  qualification  for  President  should  be  not 
less  than  $100,000,  "half  of  that  sum  for  the  judges  and 
in  like  proportion  for  congressmen."^*  Gouverneur  Mor- 
ris, a  descendant  of  Jacob  Leisler,  the  New  York  rebel  of 
the  century  before,  is  opposed  to  paying  senators.  "They 
will  pay  themselves,  if  they  can."  (What  a  prophetic  vis- 
ion he  had!)  "If  they  cannot,  they  will  be  rich,  and  can 
do  without  it."  (Aldrich  and  Guggenheim  stand  up !)  "Of 
such  the  second  branch  ought  to  consist."^^  (And  it  does, 
so  rest  in  peace!) 

Oliver  Ellsworth,  of  Massachusetts,  is  a  prophet  also. 
He  makes  the  following  prediction  regarding  wage  labor 
and  chattel  labor:  "Let  us  not  intermeddle.  As  popula- 
tion increases,  poor  laborers  ivill  he  so  plenty  as  to  render 
slaves  useless.  Slavery,  in  time,  will  not  be  a  speck  in  our 
country."^*'  What  would  this  convention  be  without  a  rep- 
resentative of  New  England  "democracy?"  Alexander 
Hamilton,  the  god  of  the  Republican  party  and  the  source 
of  all  its  wisdom,  declaims  "against  the  vices  (mark  you!) 


32rbid,  p.  243. 
33lbid,  Vol.  II,  p.  468. 
34lbid,  p.  494. 
35lbld,  Vol.  I,  p.  285. 
selbid,  Vol.  n,  p.  580. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  l8l 

of  democracy.  ,  .  .  Let  one  branch  of  the  legislature 
hold  their  places  for  life,  or  at  least,  during  good  behavior. 
Let  the  executive,  also,  be  for  life."^^ 

But  it  would  be  tedious  to  dwell  on  the  frank  utter- 
ances of  these  men  who  spoke  their  sentiments  in  secret 
conclave,  well  knowing  their  victims  could  not  hear.  Dur- 
ing the  four  months'  session  only  one  man  mentioned  the 
workers  as  being  worthy  of  having  the  franchise.  The 
man  who  has  this  distinction  is  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  his 
plea  was  listened  to  in  silence  and  passed  without  comment. 
His  extreme  age  and  feebleness  made  it  impossible  for  him 
to  speak  often  and  he  frequently  wrote  his  speeches  and 
had  one  of  his  colleagues,  Wilson,  read  them  to  the  dele- 
gates. On  August  7th  he  had  listened  for  hours  as  speaker 
after  speaker  urged  control  of  the  government  by  property 
holders.  He  arose  from  his  seat  and  without  any  prepara- 
tion spoke  in  part  as  follows: 

"It  is  of  great  consequence  that  we  should  not  depress 
the  virtue  and  public  spirit  of  our  common  people ;  of  which 
they  displayed  a  great  deal  during  the  war,  and  which  con- 
tributed principally  to  the  favorable  issue  of  it.  .  .  . 
He  was  persuaded,  also,  that  such  a  restriction  as  was  pro- 
posed would  give  great  uneasiness  in  the  populous  states. 
The  sons  of  a  substantial  farmer,  not  being  themselves  free- 
holders, would  not  be  pleased  at  being  disfranchised,  and 
there  are  a  great  many  persons  of  that  description."^^ 
Three  days  later  he  again  listened  to  speeches  urging  con- 
trol by  property  and  again  made  his  plea  for  the  workers 
without  property.     Franklin's  two  speeches  are   the   only 


37lbid,  Vol.  I,  pp.  182-183. 
SSIbid,  Vol.  II,  p.  471. 


y 


182  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

pleas  made  in  behalf  of  popular  suffrage  in  the  convention. 
Not  one  delegate  endorsed  his  views. 

It  would  seem  that  shame,  even  in  the  absence  of  a 
belief  in  the  principle,  would  have  prompted  these 
"Fathers"  to  give  some  heed  to  the  claims  of  the  poor  who, 
as  Franklin  said,  "contributed  principally  to  the  favorable 
issue"  of  the  war.  But  they  were  lost  to  all  sense  of  shame 
or  even  gratitude.  Even  Wilson,  a  delegate  from  Frank- 
lin's state  who  held  many  popular  views,  was  not  willing  to 
assist  in  battering  down  the  property  qualifications  that 
existed  in  all  the  states,  though  eleven  years  had  passed 
since  it  was  declared  that  "all  men  are  free  and  equal." 
Section  2  of  Article  i,  as  adopted,  provided  for  the  auto- 
matic exclusion  of  the  mass  of  workers  from  the  suffrage 
by  accepting  the  property  qualifications  of  the  states.  By 
its  adoption  "no  man  could  vote  for  a  member  of  the  house 
who  could  not  vote  for  a  member  of  the  most  numerous 
branch  of  his  state  legislature,  and  all  the  restrictions  im- 
posed on  suffrage  by  the  constitutions  of  the  states  were 
thus  reimposed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. "^^ 
There  were  many  times  when  the  discussions  became 
heated;  many  times  when  the  delegates  seemed  hopelessly 
divided ;  but  on  this  one  question  of  allowing  the  workers 
to  remain  excluded  from  the  suffrage,  they  were  unan- 
imous. 

The  general  plan  of  the  delegates  consisted  of  a  repu- 
diation of  instructions,  overthrow  of  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation, and  establishment  of  a  stronger  government 
by  the  aristocracy.  This  required  the  secrecy  which  they 
provided  for.     Their  scheme  of  government  was  to  have 


39McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  Ill, 
p.  140. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  183 

one  legislative  department  elected  direct  by  the  qualified 
voters,  to  "inspire  confidence"  in  the  scheme,  as  one  speaker 
expressed  it,  and  a  Senate,  Executive  and  Supreme  Court 
removed  from  popular  control  and  having  power  to  check 
the  Congress.  To  buttress  this  by  making  it  almost  impossi- 
ble to  amend  the  constitution  was  their  aim.  Prof.  J.  Allen 
Smith  asserts  that  "In  1900  one  forty-fourth  of  the  popu- 
lation distributed  so  as  to  constitute  a  majority  in  the  twelve 
smallest  states  could  defeat  any  proposed  amendment."*^ 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  courts  now  exercising 
the  power  to  set  aside  laws  enacted  by  Congress  were 
denied  this  power  even  by  these  aristocrats.  Madison  and 
Wilson  urged  a  clause  giving  this  power  to  the  Supreme 
Court  and  President  as  a  council  of  revision  and  the  sugges- 
tion zvas  voted  down  four  times.  Yet  the  courts  today  ex- 
ercise this  power  expressly  withheld  from  them  by  this  nega- 
tive vote. 

The  constitution  as  finally  agreed  on  was  not  a  unani- 
mous choice.  A  number  refused  to  sign  it  for  various  rea- 
sons. Some  signed  reluctantly ;  others  refused,  holding  that 
certain  interests  were  not  protected  enough  or  that  others 
received  undue  consideration.  Section  3  of  Article  4  con- 
tained a  fugitive  slave  clause  applying  to  white  slaves  as 
well  as  negroes.  This  clause  is  still  seen  in  printed  copies 
and  reads  as  follows: 

"No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  state,  under 
the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  conse- 
quence of  any  lazv  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from 
such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of 
the  party  to  zvhom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 


40Smith,  "The  Spirit  of  American  Government,"  p.  46. 


184'  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

This  clause  shows  that  the  "Fathers"  were  wilHng  to 
invade  state  rights  in  the  function  of  slave  catcher,  but  not 
to  invade  them  in  the  matter  of  suffrage  for  the  working 
people.  This  legalized  hunt  of  whites  and  blacks,  extend- 
ing over  several  centuries  and  embodied  in  various  legal 
codes,  had  been  so  ingrained  in  the  philosophy  of  the  aris- 
tocrats who  gave  us  the  constitution  that  they  could  not 
refrain  from  bequeathing  it  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Of 
course,  their  material  interests  were  the  urge  behind  them. 

That  our  view  of  these  men  and  the  character  of  the 
government  they  organized  is  correct  has  been  shown  by 
the  testimony  of  the  framers  themselves.  No  less  an 
authority  than  Woodrow  Wilson,  late  conservative  presi- 
dent of  Princeton  University,  endorses  this  claim.  "The 
government  had,"  he  writes,  "been  originated  and  organ- 
ized upon  the  initiative  and  primarily  in  the  interest  of  the 
mercantile  and  wealthy  classes.  Originally  conceived  as  an 
effort  to  accommodate  commercial  disputes  between  the 
states,  it  had  been  urged  to  adoption  by  a  minority,  under 
the  concerted  leadership  of  able  men  representing  a  ruling 
class."*^  This  is  quite  in  contrast  with  the  assertion  of  that 
great  bluffer,  Gladstone,  who  said,  "The  American  Consti- 
tution is  the  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck  ofif  at  a 
given  time  by  the  brain  and  purpose  of  man."  We  can  only 
consider  it  wonderful  in  the  sense  that  it  is  the  most  re- 
markable instance  in  history  of  a  document  having  all  the 
essentials  of  a  charter  of  aristocracy,  being  viewed  by  a 
gaping  multitude  as  a  guarantee  of  popular  rule.  But  the 
reception  accorded    this    "wonderful    document"    by  large 


4iQuoted  by  Smith,  "The  Spirit  of  American  Government,"  p.  52. 
"The  delegates  believed  that  society  existed  for  the  preservation  of 
property." — McLaughlin.  "The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution,"  p. 
255. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  185 

numbers  of  people  was  far  from  reassuring  to  the  conspira- 
tors. Bitter  criticism  came  from  the  dependent  classes, 
though  it  found  much  favor  with  the  wealthy.  Hamilton, 
Madison  and  others  feared  that  their  four  months  of 
treachery  would  go  for  nothing.  This  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  Constitution  was  not  to  be  submitted  to  the  quali- 
fied voters,  but  to  state  conventions  which  the  aristocracy 
would  have  good  chances  of  controlling. 

The  constitution  as  submitted  was  a  series  of  com- 
promises and  "bargains"  agreed  on  between  the  different 
sections  of  the  wealthy  classes.  "The  fear  in  which  the  lit- 
tle states  stood  of  the  great  secured  the  compromise  giving 
representation  to  states.  The  hatred  felt  by  the  slave  states 
for  the  free  caused  the  second  compromise,  giving  repre- 
sensation  to  slaves.  The  jealousy  between  states  agricul- 
tural and  states  commercial  brought  about  the  third  com- 
promise on  the  slave  trade  and  commerce."^^ 

The  convention  had  violated  its  instructions;  it  "had 
drafted  nothing  less  than  a  new  constitution — no  mere 
amendment  or  series  of  amendments  to  the  Articles  of 
Confederation ;  a  radically  new  scheme  of  government  and 
of  union — which  must  stand  or  fall  upon  its  own  merits."'*^ 
Events  which  followed  the  submission  of  the  constitution 
to  the  state  conventions  showed  that  its  partisans  had  no 
intention  whatever  of  allowing  it  to  "stand  or  fall  upon  its 
own  merits."  On  the  contrary,  knowing  that  its  "merits" 
appealed  only  to  the  wealthy  classes,  trickery,  bribery,  force 
and  deception  were  employed  to  secure  its  adoption,  and 
even    then    it    was    not  carried  by  a  majority  vote.     The 


42McMaster,  "With  The  Fathers,"  p.  121.     See  also  Fiske,  "Critical 
Period  of  American  History,"  pp.  267-268. 

43Wilson,  "History  of  the  American  People,"  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  70-71. 


l86  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

wealthy  classes  had  an  advantage  in  the  restricted  fran- 
chise, but  they  added  two  more  weapons  to  their  armory. 
These  were  gerrymandering  the  districts  against  the  poorer 
classes  who  could  vote,  and  the  publication  of  "The  Fed- 
eralist," employing  in  this  all  the  arts  of  sophistry  and  de- 
ception to  win  converts  for  the  constitution.  In  an  illumi- 
nating chapter,  entitled  "The  Political  Depravity  of  the 
Fathers,"  Professor  McMaster  writes  of  the  methods  used 
to  convince  voters  of  the  "merits"  of  public  questions  at 
that  time.  "A  very  little  study  of  long  forgotten  politics," 
he  says,  "will  suffice  to  show  that  in  filibustering  and  ger- 
rymandering, in  stealing  governorships  and  legislatures,  in 
using  force  at  the  polls,  in  colonizing  and  in  distributing 
patronage,  .  .  .  in  all  the  frauds  and  tricks  that  go  to 
make  up  the  zvorst  form  of  politics,  the  men  who  founded 
our  state  and  national  governments  were  always  our  equals, 
and  often  our  masters."'^* 

The  "worst  form  of  politics"  became  a  valuable  asset 
in  demonstrating  the  "merits"  of  the  constitution.  One  or 
two  examples  will  suffice.  The  Boston  Gazette  came  out 
with  one  issue  headed  in  large  capitals  charging  "BRI- 
BERY AND  CORRUPTION!!!"  It  charged  that  large 
sums  of  money  were  brought  from  another  state,  con- 
tributed by  the  wealthy  to  buy  support  for  the  constitution. 
Fiske  concedes  that  "there  was  probably  a  grain  of  truth 
in  it,"*^  In  Pennsylvania  the  opposition  to  the  "New  Roof," 
as  the  constitution  was  called,  was  very  strong.  The  con- 
vention met  to  consider  it  in  November,  1787,  and  two 
young  men,  one  a  reporter  for  the  Pennsylvania  Herald, 
volunteered  to  take  down  the  proceedings.     The  reporter's 


44McMaster,  "With  The  Fathers,"  p.  71. 

45Fiske,  "Critical  Period  of  American  History,"  p.  328. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  187 

account  of  the  debate  began  to  appear  in  the  Herald  while 
the  other  young  man  solicited  subscriptions  for  a  volume 
of  the  debates  he  intended  to  publish.  The  debate  was  ap- 
parently going  very  hard  with  the  Federalists,  who  sup- 
ported the  constitution,  and  the  Herald's  reports  were  re- 
printed in  other  states  to  the  dismay  of  the  conspirators. 
The  Federalists  then  bought  the  paper  and  suppressed  the 
reports.  The  other  young  man  was  bought  and  when  his 
book  appeared  it  contained  but  two  speeches  delivered  by 
warm  supporters  of  the  constitution!^^ 

"The  Federalist,"  on  the  other  hand,  appeared  from 
time  to  time  with  well  written  essays  by  Madison,  Hamil- 
ton and  Jay,  which  appeared  in  the  New  York  Packet  and 
other  papers.  In  these  essays  the  schemers  changed  front. 
In  the  secret  convention  they  avow  their  contempt  and  fear 
of  the  masses  and  of  popular  rule.  In  "The  Federalist" 
they  appear  as  champions  and  defenders  of  both  and  offer 
the  constitution  as  the  best  guarantee  of  popular  liberty. 
It  is  amusing  to  note,  in  this  connection,  that  these  essays 
are  drummed  into  the  heads  of  guileless  youths  in  American 
universities  by  the  intellectual  policemen  who  guard  the 
"higher  learning"  of  today. 

There  were  85  of  these  essays;  51  written  by  Hamil- 
ton, 29  by  Madison  and  5  by  Jay.  It  was  a  scholarly  publi- 
cation and  the  authors  presented  the  constitution  in  the 
most  favorable  light.  They  well  knew  that  the  official  jour- 
nals of  the  convention  containing  a  record  of  their  real  sen- 
timents were  beyond  the  scrutiny  of  the  eager  multitudes. 
In  the  convention,  as  we  have  seen,  they  were  born  aristo- 
crats speaking  boldly  in  behalf  of  the  wealthy ;  in  the  Fed- 


46McMaster,   "With  The  Fathers,"  pp.  74-75. 


1 86  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

eralist  they  are  advocates  of  democracy.  No  one  could 
confront  the  articles  in  the  federalist  with  the  speeches  de- 
livered behind  closed  doors.  Yet  McMaster  suspends  all 
candid  judgment  when  he  says  "That  the  work  (of  the  Fed- 
eralist) is  a  true  statement  of  what  the  framers  of  that  in- 
strument meant  it  to  be  cannot  be  doubted."*^ 

A  few  extracts  from  this  publication  contrasted  with 
the  speeches  delivered  in  the  "Dark  Conclave,"  as  the  con- 
stitutional convention  came  to  be  known,  will  satisfy  any 
candid  reader  as  to  whether  these  men  were  honest  in  their 
appeals  or  were  only  political  demagogues.  M^adison,  who 
in  the  secret  convention  said  that  "the  rights  of  property 
and  the  public  liberty  will  not  be  secure  in  their  (the 
workers')  hands,"  now  writes  in  the  Federalist  as  follows: 

"The  first  question  that  offers  itself  is,  whether  the 
general  form  and  aspect  of  the  government  be  strictly  re- 
publican. It  is  evident  that  no  other  form  would  be  recon- 
cilable with  the  genius  of  the  people  of  America;  with  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution;  or  with  the  honorable  (  !)  de- 
termination which  animates  every  votary  of  freedom  (!!) 
to  rest  all  our  political  experiments  on  the  capacity  of  man- 
kind for  self-government."*^  The  answer  to  his  own  en- 
quiry is  that  the  constitution  is  everything  that  the  "votaries 
of  freedom"  could  wish  to  expect,  and  he  elaborates  on 
this  assertion  in  51  essays,  drawing  on  the  experience  and 
history  of  ancient  and  modern  republics,  to  convince  his 
readers.  The  question  is,  was  Madison  lying  in  the  Feder- 
alist or  in  the  secret  convention  at  Philadelphia? 

Hamilton,  who  in  the  convention  urged  that  the  Senate 


47McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  484. 

48The  Federalist,  No.  38. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  189 

and  President  be  elected  for  life  and  who  repeatedly  avowed 
his  contempt  for  the  "vices  of  democracy,"  now  sends  forth 
this  appeal:  "The  fabric  of  American  empire  ought  to  rest 
on  the  solid  basis  of  the  consent  of  the  people.  The  streams 
of  national  power  ought  to  flow  immediately  from  that  pure 
original  fountain  of  all  legitimate  authority  !"*^  Was  Ham- 
ilton a  convert  to  "vices"  he  hated  or  was  he  still  the  adroit 
adventurer  and  frank  monarchist  of  the  "Dark  Conclave?" 

Later  on  he  becomes  virtuously  indignant  at  the 
charges  made  that  the  convention  was  a  conspiracy  and 
that  he  and  others  were  not  presenting  their  honest  views. 
In  the  closing  number  of  the  Federalist  he  writes:  "The 
charge  of  a  conspiracy  against  the  liberties  of  the  people, 
which  has  been  indiscriminately  brought  against  the  advo- 
cates of  the  plan,  has  something  in  it  too  wanton  and  too 
malignant  not  to  excite  the  indignation  of  every  man  who 
feels  in  his  own  bosom  a  refutation  (!)  of  the  calumny. 
.  ,  .  And  the  unwarrantable  concealments  (!!)  and  mis- 
representations (  ! ! !)  which  have  been  in  various  ways  prac- 
ticed to  keep  the  truth  (!!!!)  from  the  public  eye  have  been 
of  a  nature  to  demand  the  reprobation  of  all  honest 
men."5<' 

To  this  sophistry  we  may  reply  in  the  cutting  words  of 
Professor  Smith:  "The  evidence  now  accessible  to  stu- 
dents of  the  American  Constitution  proves  that  the  charges 
oi"  'concealments  and  misrepresentations'  made  with  this 
show  of  righteous  indignation  against  the  opponents  of 
the  constitution  might  have  justly  been  made  against  Ham- 
ilton himself.     But  knowing  that  the  views  expressed  in  the 


49The  Federalist,  No.  44. 
50The  Federalist,  No.  85. 


190  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Federal  Convention  were  not  public  property,  he  could 
safely  give  to  the  press  this  'refutation  of  the  calumny/  "^^ 

However,  the  scholarly  attainments  of  the  treacherous 
pleaders  and  the  ingenious  arguments  which  they  employed 
in  defense  of  the  constitution ;  the  advantage  which  they 
possessed  in  the  fact  that  the  mass  of  the  workers  had  no 
vote;  together  with  the  employment  of  force  and  bribery, 
all  these  had  their  effect  in  carrying  the  day  for  the  usurp- 
ing minority.  These,  and  these  alone,  constituted  the  "mer- 
its" of  th'^  constitution. 

Opponents  of  the  document  had  a  powerful  argument 
in  pointing  out  the  important  fact  that  the  "votaries  of 
freedom"  had  omitted  any  provisions  for  the  freedom  of 
the  press,  freedom  of  speech  and  assemblage,  the  right  of 
petition,  and  the  right  of  trial  by  jury.  This  had  such 
effect  that  the  Federalists  made  it  known  that  if  the  consti- 
tution was  adoped  the  First  Congress  would  submit  amend- 
ments including  these  popular  guarantees.  This  became 
also  a  powerful  bid  for  support.  The  Federalists  were  finally 
able  to  carry  the  constitution  by  small  majorities  in  the 
state  conventions.  But  even  this  was  only  a  partial  victory, 
for  only  six  states  adopted  it  without  any  qualifications, 
while  the  remaining  seven  in  adopting  it  recommended 
amendments  ranging  from  four  by  South  Carolina  to  thirty- 
two  by  New  York. 

It  was  adopted  by  a  minority  vote.  There  are  abundant 
authorities  who  affirm  this  judgment.  Owing  to  the  re- 
strictions placed  on  the  suffrage  only  those  possessing  prop- 
erty had  a  voice  in  choosing  delegates  to  the  state  conven- 
tions that  considered   the   instrument.     McMaster  affirms 


5iSmith,   "The  Spirit  of  American  Government,"   pp.   77-78. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I9I 

that  many  farmers'  sons,  wandering  teachers  and  lawyers 
beginning  practice  were  fortunate  if  they  could  vote  at  the 
age  of  twenty-eight.  ''Of  the  mass  of  unskilled  laborers — 
the  men  who  dug  ditches,  carried  loads,  or  in  harvest  time 
helped  the  farmer  gather  in  his  hay  and  grain — it  is  safe  to 
say  that  very  few,  if  any,  ever  in  the  course  of  their  lives 
cast  a  vote.""^  In  fact,  "There  were  probably  not  more  than 
120,000  men  who  had  the  right  to  vote  out  of  all  the  four 
million  inhabitants  enumerated  in  the  first  census  (1790)."^^ 

The  vote  cast  in  the  states  shows  the  division  between 
the  wealthy  class  and  those  of  moderate  means ;  the  former 
•favoring,  the  latter  opposing,  the  constitution.  "All  who 
possessed  estates,  who  were  engaged  in  traffic,  or  held  any 
of  the  final  settlements  and  depreciation  certificates,  felt 
safe."^*  On  the  other  hand,  the  constitution  "was  opposed 
by  the  men  who  lived  remote  from  the  centers  of  popula- 
tion and  the  stronger  currents  of  trade,  ...  by  men 
who  were  more  likely  to  be  debtors  than  to  be  creditors.""^ 

Fisher,  speaking  of  Massachusetts,  asserts  that  out  of 
every  four  or  five  adult  males  only  one  was  a  freeman; 
"and  this  disfranchised  majority,  which  included  from 
three-fourths  to  four-fifths  of  the  able-bodied  men  of  the 
colony,  had  no  more  part  or  lot  in  the  government  than  the 
women  and  children. "^^  Professor  Francis  Norton  Thorpe 
also  states  that  the  "freemen  of  America  a  century  ago  com- 
prised about  one-fifteenth  of  the  whole  population."" 


52McMaster,  "With  The  Fathers,"  pp.  163-164. 

53Wilson,   "History  of  the  American  People,"   Vol.  Ill,  pp.   120-121. 

54McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  399. 

ssWilson,  "History  of  the  American  People,"  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  79-80. 
See  also  his  map  showing  clearly  the  distribution  of  the  vote  along 
tllGSG  linGs. 

r>6Fisher,  "Men,  Women  and  Manners  in  Colonial  Times,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  132. 

57Thorpe,  "Magazine  of  American  History."  Vol.  XVIII,  p.  131. 


192  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

The  Struggle  over  the  constitution  developed  two 
clearly  marked  divisions;  one  comprising  the  Federalists 
who  supported  it,  and  one  of  the  Anti-Federalists  who  op- 
posed it.  With  one  exception  the  former  party  in  all  the 
states  was  made  up  of  the  various  sections  of  the  ruling 
class,  while  the  latter  was  composed  of  the  poor  classes  who 
managed  to  qualify  for  the  suffrage.^^  The  opposition  to 
the  constitution  was  located  in  those  sections  where  hard 
and  painful,  but  useful  toil  was  the  chief  distinction  of 
their  inhabitants.  It  included  the  "debtor  and  paper  money 
region  and  one  peculiarly  sensitive  to  taxation.  It  included 
factious  Rhode  Island,  the  Shays'  region  in  Massachusetts 
and  the  center  of  a  similiar  movement  in  New  Hampshire." 
It  found  its  most  ardent  supporters  in  the  commercial  cen- 
ters of  all  the  colonies ;  "the  areas  of  intercourse  and  wealth 
carried  the  constitution. "^° 

Henry  Knox  wrote  to  Washington  in  1788  that  in 
Massachusetts  the  "property  and  ability"  of  the  state  fa- 
vored the  constitution  and  opposed  to  it  were  Shays'  sym- 
pathizers, constituting  four-fifths  of  the  opposition.  Mad- 
ison mentions  eighteen  or  twenty  delegates  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts convention  who  were  in  Shays'  army  and  were  op- 
posed to  the  constitution.®" 

In  Rhode  Island,  "as  in  Massachusetts,  the  wealthy  and 
commercial  classes  united  to  favor  the  constitution,  as  op- 
posed to  the  interior  agricultural  class  who  believed  among 


581  am  indebted  to  the  librarian  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  for 
the  privilege  of  consulting  Orrin  Grant  Libby's  invaluable  monograph, 
"The  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Vote  of  the  Thirteen  States  on 
the  Federal  Constitution,  1787-8."  His  examination  of  the  records  of 
the  vote  in  the  conventions  on  the  Constitution  is  exhaustive  and  gen- 
erally conceded  as  authoritative.  My  account  of  the  vote  in  the  states 
is  a  summary  of  Mr.   Libby's  conclusions. 

r.oLibby,  pp.  46-49. 

eolbid,  p.  13. 


Tllli:    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I93 

Other  things,  in  paper  money  issues."^  Here  the  debtor 
class  predominated  and  opposition  to  the  constitution  made 
it  the  last  state  to  come  into  the  union. 

New  Jersey  desired  the  regulation  of  commerce  to  be 
assumed  by  the  federal  government  and  fretted  under  the 
imposts  levied  by  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  What  op- 
position prevailed  came  from  the  debtor  and  paper  money 
regions. *'- 

In  Connecticut  the  opposition  was  very  weak,  but  came 
from  sections  of  the  state  that  contained  the  debtor  classes 
and  those  who  sympathized  with  Shays'  Rebellion.*'^ 

In  Pennsylvania  "The  paper  money  and  debt  factions 
of  1786  quite  largely  joined  the  Anti-Federalists  of  1788."*'* 

Eighty  per  cent  of  tidewater  Virginia,  containing  the 
monied  and  commercial  interests,  supported  the  constitu- 
tion. The  interior,  composed  of  small  farmers,  voted  74 
per  cent  against.  The  West  Virginia  district,  which  lay 
in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  with  a  thickly  settled  and  im- 
portant commercial  interest,  voted  97  per  cent  for  while 
the  back  country  of  Kentucky  voted  90  per  cent  against.*'^ 

Georgia  gave  a  speedy  endorsement  to  the  constitution 
because  of  its  exposed  situation  as  the  Southern  frontier 
state.  A  strong  government  was  regarded  as  necessary  to 
cope  with  the  Indians  on  the  border  and  to  assist  in  reclaim- 
ing fugitive  slaves  who  continually  crossed  the  Spanish 
line  and  escaped.®'' 

The  six  towns  represented  in  the  North  Corolina  con- 
vention were  all  Federal  but  one,  and  three  of  them  be- 


eilbid,  p.  17. 
62lbid,  p.  61. 
C3lbid,  pp.  57-58. 
64lbid,  p.  64. 
65lbid,  pp.  34-35. 
66Ibid,  p.  45. 


13 


194  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

longed  to  counties  otherwise  Anti-Federal.  Here  as  in  the 
other  states  the  commercial  sections  were  generally  Federal 
strongholds  while  the  interior  was  Anti-Federal.*'^ 

South  Carolina  presented  the  usual  division  between 
the  wealthy  commercial  district  along  the  coast — particu- 
larly the  city  of  Charleston — and  the  back  country  of  farm- 
ers and  frontiersmen.  Long  before  the  Revolution  the 
indolent  aristocracy  of  this  city  incurred  the  antagonism  of 
the  democracy  of  the  interior  which  found  expression  in 
the  struggle  over  the  constitution.  The  coast  region  stood 
88  per  cent  for  the  constitution,  the  middle  region  being 
almost  evenly  divided,  while  the  upper  region  stood  80  per 
cent  against  it.®^ 

New  York  furnishes  the  one  exception  to  this  general 
division  of  the  vote.  The  interior  counties  of  this  state 
were  opposed  to  the  constitution,  although  the  two  cities  of 
Albany  and  Hudson  favored  it  but  did  not  send  delegates 
to  the  state  convention.  New  York  City  and  county  were 
strongly  Federal  but  the  state  as  a  whole  was  strongly  Anti- 
Federal  owing  to  the  preponderence  of  power  held  by  the 
land  kings  along  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Mohawk. 
This  landed  aristocracy  controlled  the  government,  collect- 
ed duties  on  goods  going  to  other  states  through  New  York 
ports,  and  would  have  to  surrender  this  privilege  if  the  state 
entered  the  union.  Its  ruling  classes  believed  that  New  York 
could  stand  alone  as  an  independent  state  and  in  opposing 
the  constitution  were  following  what  appeared  to  be  their 
material   interests.      This   x\nti-Federal   aristocracy   consti- 


67lbid,  pp.  41-42. 
68lbid,  pp.  43-44. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  195 

tutes    the    one    exception    to    the    general  truth    that    the 
wealthy  classes  urged  and  fought  for  the  constitution."^ 

This  brief  survey  of  the  vote  on  the  constitution  clearly 
shows  the  interests  opposing  and  the  interests  favoring  it. 
It  is  also  clear  that  the  Constitional  Convention  was  a  con- 
spiracy and  the  constitution  a  new  charter  making  more 
secure  the  position  of  the  ruling  classes  of  that  day.  Both 
were  a  counter-revolution  against  poor  debtors  driven  mad 
by  the  treatment  they  received  after  fighting  the  battles  of 
the  property-owning  classes  in  the  war.  The  constitution 
gave  the  ruling  classes  possession  of  a  strong  government 
and  efficient  police  and  military  power  to  enact  their  interests 
into  laws  to  be  obeyed  by  all.  It  remains  for  us  to  also 
observe  that  at  no  time  in  our  history  has  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  been  ratified  by  a  majority  vote  of  the 
people.  It  was,  it  is,  and  it  will  remain,  until  changed,  the 
machinery  by  which  an  idle  owning  class  makes  all  classes 
below  it  serve  it  as  dependents. 


69lbid,  Chap.  I.  See  also  McLaughlin,  "The  Confederation  and  the 
Constitution,"  p.   306. 


196  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Chapter  IX 

The  Period  of  Struggle 


We  have  traced  the  development  of  the  working-class 
over  three  centuries  and  it  remains  for  us  to  briefly  consider 
the  development  which  followed  the  adoption  of  the  constitu- 
tion. The  new  government  placed  the  privileged  classes 
firmly  in  the  saddle  and  the  new  century  brought  with  it  a 
desertion  of  the  sea-coast  states  that  has  continued  down  to 
recent  times.  The  more  daring  moved  out  into  the  wilder- 
ness of  Tennessee  or  drifted  down  the  Ohio  to  Kentucky  to 
escape  "from  a  barren  country  loaded  with  taxes  and  im- 
poverished with  debts,"  as  one  pioneer  Avrote  from  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio  in  1785.^  The  advance  guard  with  rifie  and 
powder  horn  pushed  their  way  along  the  courses  of  rivers, 
building  blockhouses,  clearing  the  forests  for  cultivation,  and 
leaving  pools  of  settlers  behind  to  grow  into  villages,  towns 
and  cities. 

John  Bradbury,  an  English  traveler,  noticed  what  many 
later  travelers  observed,  that  emigrants  lacking  the  stamina 
for  enduring  the  hardships  of  clearing  the  wilderness  always 
found  opportunity  for  buying  out  the  backwoodsman's  clear- 
ing. The  latter  found  the  frontier  with  its  hardships,  adven- 
ture and  primitive  freedom  more  attractive  than  the  civiliza- 
tion creeping  at  his  heels.  The  clearing  which  he  sold 
generally  consisted  of  a  log  house,  a  small  orchard,  and  from 


iMcLaughlin,   "The  Confederation  and  the  Constitution,"  p.  95. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I97 

ten  to  forty  acres  enclosed  and  partly  cleared."  It  is  this 
fleeing  host  of  workers  across  a  continent  that  constitutes  a 
phase  of  American  history  that  is  unknown  to  any  other  na- 
tion. The  moving  frontier  absorbed  the  European  or  the 
worker  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  states  and  transformed  him 
into  a  communist,  a  barbarian,  a  hunter  or  a  savage  accord- 
ing to  the  place  he  occupied  in  the  advancing  line.  If  it  was 
the  farthest  outpost  jetting  into  the  wilderness,  he  was  likely 
to  be  transformed  into  something  akin  to  the  savage  in  his 
mode  of  life.  If  he  was  a  recruit  farther  back  in  the  line  of 
advance  he  may  have  formed  one  of  the  groups  of  com- 
munist settlers  who,  through  mutual  aid,  raised  each  other's 
log  huts,  cleared  each  other's  land,  husked  corn  in  common 
and  largely  lived  a  communist  life. 

Of  the  transformations  that  the  environment  of  the 
frontier  wrought  in  the  habits,  customs  and  morals  of  civ- 
ilized man,  Prof.  Turner  says: 

"The  wilderness  masters  the  colonist.  It  finds  him  a 
European  in  dress,  industries,  tools,  modes  of  travel,  and 
thought.  It  takes  iiim  from  the  railroad  car  and  puts  him 
in  the  birch  canoe.  It  strips  off  the  garments  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  arrays  him  in  the  hunting  shirt  and  the  moccasin. 
It  puts  him  in  the  log  cabin  of  the  Cherokee  and  Iroquois 
and  runs  an  Indian  palisade  around  him.  Before  long  he 
has  gone  to  planting  Indian  corn  and  plowing  with  a  sharp 
stick ;  he  shouts  the  war  cry  and  takes  the  scalp  in  orthodox 
Indian  fashion.  In  short,  at  the  frontier  the  environment 
is  at  first  too  strong  for  the  man.    He  must  accept  the  con- 


2Bradbury,  "Travels  in  the  Interior  of  America  in  the  Years  1809, 
1810  and  1811,"  p.   291. 


198  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ditions  which  it  furnishes,  or  perish,  and  so  he  fits  himself 
into  the  Indian  clearings  and  follows  the  Indian  trails."^ 

As  the  development  of  the  child,  from  conception  to 
birth,  repeats  the  history  of  living  things  from  the  lowest 
forms  of  life  to  man,  so  this  westward  migration  of  the 
people  reproduced  much  of  the  social  history  of  mankind 
from  savagery  to  modern  capitalism. 

"The  advance  guard  of  hunters,  trappers,  fishermen, 
scouts  and  Indian  fighters  reproduced  with  remarkable 
fidelity  the  social  stage  of  savagery.  They  lived  in  rude 
shelters  built  of  logs  or  of  prairie  sod,  found  their  food  and 
clothing  by  the  chase,  gathered  around  personal  leaders, 
were  often  lawless,  brutal  and  quarrelsome,  though  more 
frequently  they  displayed  the  even  more  characteristically 
savage  traits  of  taciturn  silence  and  fatalistic  courage. 
."*  Following  these  came  the  first  settlers,  who 
stopped  long  enough  to  make  the  first  clearings,  only  to 
move  on  and  repeat  this  experience  as  the  next  wave  of 
approaching  population  reached  them.  They  combined  mu- 
tual assistance  in  farming  and  hut-building,  with  hunting 
and  fishing,  to  maintain  existence.  Following  them  came 
the  nomadic  stage  of  herdsmen  and  cowboys,  crossing  the 
continent  in  its  order  wherever  the  land  permitted.  Fol- 
lowing this  stage  came  the  first  permanent  settlements, 
bringing  with  them  the  infant  phases  of  capitalism  which 
were  to  develop  into  the  hideous  cities  with  their  dirt,  dis- 
ease, slums,  and  merciless  robbery  of  the  workers.^ 

3P.  J.  Turner,  "The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American  His- 
tory," International  Socialist  Review,  December,  1905. 

4Simons,  "Social  Forces  in  American  History,"  Chap.  XII.  I  am 
indebted  to  Comrade  Simons  for  the  privilege  of  reading  the  manu- 
script of  his  book.  His  work  is  a  well-balanced  study  of  economic  and 
social  forces  that  have  determined  the  course  of  American  history 
and  is  indispensable  to  those  who  wish  to  understand  the  "how"  and 
"why"  of  many  important  events  and  institutions. 

Bibid. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  I99 

The  accounts  of  early  western  travelers  are  filled  with 
interesting  descriptions  of  this  moving  horde  of  people  and 
the  life  they  lived  in  each  stage.  Andre  Michaux,  a  French 
traveler,  in  1793-96,  mentions  the  almost  complete  reversion 
of  his  countrymen  to  savagery  at  the  French  settlement  of 
Kaskaskia,  Illinois.  Most  of  the  settlers  were  clothed  like 
savages  and  their  huts  were  in  ruins.  "They  wear  no 
breeches  but  pass  between  their  thighs  a  piece  of  cloth 
which  is  kept  in  place  before  and  behind  above 
the  hips  by  a  belt."*'  In  the  rough,  border  life  of  these 
people  gambling  and  fighting  are  prominent  vices.  Hands, 
teeth,  knees,  head  and  feet  are  used  in  fighting.  The  old 
Virginia  custom  of  "gouging"  each  other's  eyes  out  by  the 
skillful  use  of  thumb  and  finger  is  a  common  practice.  An- 
other traveler  in  1807-09  observes  that  "the  backswoods- 
men,  as  the  first  emigrants  from  the  eastward  of  the  Alle- 
gheny mountains  are  called,  are  very  similar  in  their  habits 
and  manners  to  the  aborigines,  only  perhaps  more  prodigal 
and  more  careless  of  life,  .  .  .  Their  cabins  are  not 
better  than  wigwams."^ 

Money  cannot  purchase  necessary  help.  An  employ- 
ing class  with  a  well-stocked  "labor  market"  was  to  come 
later.  Mutual  aid  is  the  rule.  On  an  appointed  day  the 
neighbors  assemble  and  divide  into  parties  to  each  of  which 
is  assigned  a  duty.  Bradbury  often  witnessed  a  cabin  rais- 
ing. "One  party,"  he  writes,  "cuts  down  the  trees,  another 
lops  and  cuts  them  to  proper  lengths,  a  third  is  furnished 
with  horses  and  oxen,  and  drags  them  to  the  spot  designed 
for  the  site  of  the  house;  another  party  is  employed  in 
making  shingles  to  cover  the  roof,  and  at  light  all  the  ma- 


p-Andre  Michaux's  Travels;  "Early  Western  Travels,"  Vol.  Ill,  p.  70. 
TCuming's  Tour,   "Early  Western  Travels,"  Vol.  TV,  p.  137. 


200  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

terials  are  ready  upon  the  spot ;  and  on  the  night  of  the 
next  day,  he  and  his  family  sleep  in  their  new  habitation.'"*^ 
This  communal  help  is  known  as  a  "frolic."  There  are 
frolics  to  reap  the  wheat,  to  clear  the  woods  and  hew  logs 
into  lengths,  and  for  picking  cotton.  There  also  also  sewing 
and  quilting  frolics  for  making  clothing  in  the  households." 
The  frontier  is  the  best  example  of  the  influence  of  en- 
vironment in  transforming  character,  shaping  institutions, 
forming  habits  and  customs  and  determining  the  type  of 
society  in  general. 

Back  in  the  sea-coast  states  the  poverty  of  the  masses 
was  pressing  this  mass  of  people  through  the  wilderness  by 
sending  a  constant  stream  of  recruits  into  the  rear  ranks. 
Early  in  the  last  century  Bradbury  observed  many  farms 
abandoned  in  Virginia.  He  was  informed  that  in  i8  months 
15,000  wagons  containing  emigrants  passed  one  New  York 
bridge  to  the  West.  Wagoners  carry  beds,  cooking  utensils 
and  food.  Many  wander  afoot  and  some  stop  at  taverns  if 
able  to  pay.^**  Another  traveler  in  Pennsylvania  about  the 
same  time  mentions  a  "singular  party  of  travelers — a  man 
with  his  wife  and  ten  children.  The  eldest  of  the  progeny 
had  the  youngest  tied  on  his  back ;  and  the  father  pushed 
a  wheelbarrow,  containing  the  movables  of  the  family." 
They  are  leaving  New  Jersey  and  their  destination  is  Ohio. 
Farther  on  a  young  woman  is  passed,  "carrying  a  sucking 
child  in  her  arms,  and  leading  a  very  little  one  by  the 
hand."^^  Arriving  at  Pittsburg  or  Wheeling  the  emigrants 
float  down  the  Ohio  in  flat-bottomed  "arks,"  carrying  three 
or  four  families  who  locate  close  to  a  town  or  disappear 


sBradbury,    "Travels,"    p.    293. 

oWood's  "English  Prairie,"  Ear.  West.  Trav.  Vol.  X,  p.  300. 

loBradbury,   "Travels,"   pp.   310-17. 

iiFlint,   "Letters  from  America,"   Ear.   West.   Trav.  Vol.   IX,  p.   Ti. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  20I 

in  the  wilderness.  At  Pittsburg  sharks  are  waiting  to 
sell  cheap,  defective  barks  that  may  sink  when  striking 
obstructions  and  endanger  the  lives  of  the  occupants.^- 

In  1811  one  Pennsylvania  town  witnessed  the  pass- 
ing of  236  wagons  in  one  month  bound  for  Ohio.  By  1814 
the  poor  were  deserting  the  East  in  such  numbers  as  to 
arouse  fears  that  it  would  be  depopulated.  Residents  of 
New  York  State  affirmed  that  they  had  never  seen  such 
a  migration  westward.  The  population  of  Ohio,  Indiana 
and  Kentucky  increased  rapidly,  while  Virginia  seriously 
thought  of  legislation  to  check  its  emigration.  Villages  on 
the  Ohio  that  were  scarcely  more  than  a  cluster  of  huts 
grew  into  flourishing  towns  within  a  few  years.  One 
family  of  eight  walked  from  Maine  to  Pennsylvania  drag- 
ging children  and  goods  in  a  handcart.  By  181 7  some 
cities  of  the  East  ceased  to  grow,  so  great  was  the  deser- 
tion of  the  seaboard  states  by  the  poor.^" 

In  1820  Flint  writes  of  having  seen  upwards  of  1,500 
men  out  of  work  during  the  previous  eleven  months. 
Newspapers  and  private  letters  agree  that  wages  at  Phil- 
adelphia and  at  other  points  had  decreased  to  twenty  cents 
per  day  and  board.  Great  numbers  are  encamped  in  open 
fields  near  Baltimore.  Wages  are  low  along  the  Ohio  and 
paid  in  depreciated  paper.  Some  boarding  houses  refuse 
it  and  the  laborers  fire  a  decayed  log  and  sleep  by  it  at 
night.  A  Cincinnati  paper  advertised  a  place  for  receiv- 
ing old  clothes  for  the  poor  and  cast-ofif  shoes  for  chil- 
dren.    Contracts  are  let  in  the  western  country  for  board- 


i2lbid,  p.  94. 

i3McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States."  Vol.  IV, 
pp.  388-9.  By  1821  the  official  classes  were  so  alarmed  by  the  increase 
of  pauperism  and  crime  that  some  demanded  a  return  to  the  whipping 
post,  the  pillory  and  gallows.  The  treadmill  was  introduced  in  many 
prisons  and  was  used  for  years  as  a  "correction"  for  poverty. — Ibid, 
pp.   546-7. 


202  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ing  the  poor  who  are  farmed  out  to  employers.^*  Poverty 
filled  the  debtors'  prisons  and  one  congressman,  in  1829, 
protests  against  the  spectacle  of  a  constable  selling  a 
woman  at  public  auction  for  debt  under  the  authority  of 
Congress.^^ 

By  1833  thousands  were  leaving  New  England  and 
following  a  route  bordering  the  lakes.  The  revolutions  of 
1848  in  Europe  sent  tens  of  thousands  and  was  further 
stimulated  by  transportation  agencies  interested  in  immi- 
gration. The  terrible  famine  in  Ireland  where  thousands 
dropped  of  hunger  in  the  streets  and  fields  brought  fleeing 
Irishmen  in  droves."  In  1843  hundreds  were  gathered  at 
the  Missouri  ferries  and  by  1847  between  four  and  five 
thousand  were  crossing.^^  The  emigrants  of  1849  were 
similar  to  the  masses  who  made  their  way  across  the  Al- 
leghenies  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  some  on  foot 
carrying  babies  in  their  arms  and  barefooted  children 
trudging  behind,  while  others  made  their  way  in  the  prairie 
schooner.  Often  the  sufiferings  of  the  emigrants  were 
greater  than  the  westward  movement  had  ever  experi- 
enced.^® 

While  the  workers  were  deserting  the  seacoast  states 
and  seeking  economic  independence,  a  peculiar  by-product 
of  colonial  exploitation  had  already  formed  in  the  moun- 
tain regions  of  the  South.  The  mountain  whites  inhabited 
the  Appalachian  chain  from  western  Virginia  to  northern 
Alabama.  Crowded  back  by  the  movement  of  population, 
they  wandered  into  remote  regions  and  became  isolated 
from  the  outside  world.     Their   development  became  ar- 


i4Flint,    "LetteTS  from  America,"   pp.   226-9. 
inMcMaster,    "History,"   Vol.    V,    pp.    224-5. 
leMcMaster,   "History,"  Vol.  VII,  pp.   222-3. 
iTPaxon,  "The  Last  American  Frontier,"  p.  76. 
islbid,  pp.  113-4. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  203 

rested  at  a  period  identical  with  the  colonial  era,;  their 
manners,  customs,  songs  and  speech  belong  to  this  period. 
Living  in  rude  huts,  having  large  families,  using  the  sim- 
ple implements  of  the  barbarian  beyond  the  frontier,  they 
vegetated  in  ignorance  of  the  great  current  of  progress 
that  was  sweeping  beyond  them." 

The  life  of  the  mountain  whites  is  so  like  the  life  of 
the  people  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  an  observer 
has  given  them  the  name  of  "Our  contemporary  ances- 
tors."-" In  some  parts  the  spinning  wheel  is  still  in  use 
and  there  are  instances  of  a  sheep  trotting  about  in  the 
early  morning  and  a  mountaineer  wearing  its  pelt  at 
night,  it  having  been  sheared,  spun,  woven,  dyed,  cut, 
made  and  fitted  in  that  one  day.  They  still  sin,;  the  old 
Elizabethan  ballads  which  are  handed  down  from  grand- 
mother to  child. ^^  The  lowest  layers  live  in  rude  cabins 
with  scanty  supplies  of  food.  Most  of  them  are  illiterate 
and  many  have  negro  or  Indian  blood  in  their  veins.  A 
mixture  of  corn  meal,  salt  and  water  baked  on  hot  coals 
with  what  game  they  shoot  or  trap  make  up  their  living. 
Ignorant  preachers  shout  the  terrors  of  hell-fire  till  sin- 
ners "get  religion,"  while  the  men  chew  enormous  quanti- 
ties of  tobacco  and  the  women  "dip  snuff."  Bathing  is  a 
lost  art  and  a  garment  once  put  on  stays  there  until  it  is 
worn  out.  They  are  proud  and  generous  and  share  their 
simple  comforts  with  strangers  with  the  pomp  of  princes. 

The  lowland  whites  lie  east  of  this  region  and  are 
largely  composed  of  descendants  of  the  poorer  classes  and 
released  servants  of  earlier  days.  These  "poor  whites" 
still  form  a  large  element  in  the  population  of  the  South- 


i9McMaster,   "History,"   Vol.   VTI,   pp.   236-7. 
20Hart,   "The  Southern  South,"  p.  30. 
2ilbid,  pp.  30-32. 


204  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ern  states.  Twenty  years  before  the  Civil  War  Frances 
Anne  Kemble  observed  them  in  Georgia.  "They  are  hard- 
ly protected,"  she  writes,  "from  the  weather  by  the  rude 
shelters  they  frame  for  themselves  in  the  midst  of  these 
dreary  woods.  Their  food  is  chiefly  supplied  by  shooting 
the  wild  fowl  and  venison,  and  stealing  from  the  cultivat- 
ed patches  of  the  plantations  nearest  at  hand.  Their 
clothes  hang  about  them  in  filthy  tatters,  and  the  combined 
squalor  and  fierceness  of  their  appearance  is  really  fright- 
ful."" They  were  and  are  a  legitimate  product  of  the  sys- 
tem of  slave  labor  which  made  the  performance  of  useful 
labor  by  white  men  a  disgrace.  They  believe  themselves  a 
part  of  the  ruling  whites  and  share  the  latter's  hatred  of 
the  "nigger."  The  ruling  class  fosters  this  hatred  of  the 
blacks  by  the  poor  whites  and  rules  and  robs  both. 

The  ruling  and  poor  whites  regarded  labor  as  a  dis- 
tinct function  of  the  negro,  while  the  poor  white  often  sunk 
to  depths  of  poverty,  as  a  result  of  his  refusal  to  work, 
that  the  negro  never  knew.  Flint  observed  a  curious  ex- 
ample of  this  in  1818.  "Certain  kinds  of  labor,"  he  writes, 
"are  despised  as  being  the  work  of  slaves.  Shoe  blacking 
and,  in  some  instances,  family  manufactures,  are  of  this 
class  of  laborers ;  and  it  is  thus  that  in  some  of  the  small 
towns  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio,  the  mechanic  and 
laborer  are  to  be  seen  drawing  water  at  the  wells ;  their 
wives  and  daughters  not  condescending  to  services  that  are 
looked  upon  to  be  opprobrious.  It  was  for  the  same  rea- 
son that,  on  one  occasion,  some  paupers  in  a  poorhouse  at 
Cincinnati  refused  to  carry  water  for  their  own  use."-' 
The   hatred  borne  the  negro   in  the   South  by  the   white 


22Kemble,    "Journal    of   a   Residence    on   a   Georgian    Plantation    in 
1838-1839,"   p.   76. 

23Flint,  "Letters  from  America,"  Ear.  West.  Trav.  Vol.  IX,  p.  218. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  205 

workers  has  been  intensified  by  the  fact  that  the  Civil  War 
placed  blacks  and  whites  in  the  same  labor  market  and 
the  white  now  insists  on  the  privilege  of  being  exploited. 
To  be  thrust  into  the  same  market  and  be  compelled  to 
serve  the  white  masters  violates  the  old  conception  that 
work  belongs  exclusively  to  the  blacks.-* 

The  poor  whites  of  the  lowlands  are  known  as  "Tar 
Heels"  in  North  Carolina,  "Sand  Killers"  in  South  Caro- 
lina, "Crackers"  in  Georgia,  "Clay  Eaters"  in  Alabama, 
"Red  Necks"  in  Arkansas,  "Hill  Billies"  in  Mississippi, 
and  "Mean  Whites,"  "White  Trash"  and  "No  'Count" 
everywhere.-^  They  are  held  in  contempt  by  the  politi- 
cians and  ruling  whites,  who  stimulate  their  hatred  of  the 
negro  in  order  to  rule  both. 

While  the  moving  population  was  sending  the  workers 
westward  in  quest  of  better  conditions  those  left  in  the 
cities  were  engaging  in  the  struggle  for  the  "inalienable 
rights"  that  the  Declaration  proclaimed  and  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  denied.  A  study  of  the  demands  made 
by  the  workers  at  this  time  shows  that  they  were  always 
advancing  proposals  and  outlining  plans  for  every  popular 
liberty  that  has  come  down  to  us.  They  represented  the 
only  statesmanship  that  was  of  value  at  this  period  while 
the  men  in  public  life  were  enlisted  in  the  service  of  some 
section  of  the  ruling  class.  The  issues  that  confronted  the 
workers  were  public  education,  imprisonment  for  debt,  the 
militia  system,  mechanics'  liens,  equal  taxation,  cheaper 
legal  procedure,  abolition  of  conspiracy  laws  against  labor 
organizations,  child  labor  and  opposition  to  chartered 
banks  and  monopolies. 


24Baker,    "Following  the  Color  Line,"   p.   85. 
2r.Hart,   "The  Southern  South,"  p.  38. 


206  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

The  workers  were  often  cheated  out  of  their  scanty 
wages  by  absconding  contractors  or  paid  in  worthless 
script  or  depreciated  money.  The  hours  of  labor  were 
from  daylight  till  dark;  the  debtors'  prisons  still  swal- 
lowed thousands;  what  few  free  schools  existed  carried 
with  them  the  stigma  of  pauperism  for  the  worker's  child ; 
the  compulsory  militia  system,  permitting  the  rich  to  es- 
cape service  by  paying  a  small  fine,  left  the  worker  no 
choice  between  service  and  imprisonment.^"  Labor  organi- 
zations were  prosecuted  under  old  English  laws  as  con- 
spiracies; the  children  of  the  poor  were  being  drawn  into 
the  factories  and  property  qualifications  excluded  the  mass 
of  workers  from  voting.  All  this  driftwood  floating  down 
from  the  past  had  to  be  removed  by  the  working  class  and 
the  workers  set  about  the  task  before  them. 

Not  only  was  the  press  of  that  day  opposed  to  any 
changes  but  the  politicians  were  either  indiflferent  or  hos- 
tile, while  employers'  associations  were  formed  to  oppose 
the  workers'  demands.-"  The  workers  defended  their  gen- 
eral position  and  demands  with  a  skill  and  logic  that  is 
hardly  equalled  by  the  unions  today  and  some  passages  in 
their  official  utterances  show  that  they  perceived  the  char- 
acter of  capitalist  society  as  a  system  that  enabled  a  few 
to  live  ofif  of  unpaid  labor.  As  early  as  1828  the  Me- 
chanics Union  of  Philadelphia  declared  in  its  preamble: 
"Do  not  all  the  streams  of  wealth  which  flow  in  every  di- 
rection and  are  emptied  into  and  absorbed  by  the  coffers  of 
the  unproductive,  exclusively  take  their  rise  in  the  bones, 
marrow,  and  muscles  of  the  industrious  classes?     In  re- 


26Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial  Society,  Vol.  V,  In- 
troduction. 

27See  resolutions  adopted  by  master  carpenters  in  Philadelphia, 
1827,   Ibid,    pp.    81-82. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  20/ 

turn  for  which,  exclusive  of  a  bare  subsistence,     . 
they  receive  not  a  thing  !"-^ 

One  of  the  first  and  foremost  demands  was  for  the 
pubHc  school  and  free  education.  As  an  institution  the 
common  school  had  no  existence  and  agitation  for  it  met 
the  vigorous  opposition  of  the  ruling  classes.  From  1809 
to  1835  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania  provided  that  only  those 
who  took  oath  that  they  could  not  send  their  children  to 
private  pay  schools  should  be  allowed  to  send  them  to  the 
public  schools.  The  public  schools  were  regarded  as  pau- 
per institutions,  a  stigma  of  shame  being  attached  to  chil- 
dren who  attended  them.  In  Delaware  and  Maryland  the 
schools  were  little  better  and  were  frequently  taught  by 
redemptioners  and  indentured  servants.  Schools  were 
often  in  the  hands  of  ignorant,  brutal  and  immoral  teach- 
ers and  school  funds  were  often  embezzled  or  neglected. 
The  workers  attacked  the  schools  and  by  1S34  there  were 
200,000  children  out  of  school  in  Pennsylvania.  In  Sep- 
tember of  that  year  the  State  provided  for  tax-supported 
schools  and  three  months  later  petitions  for  repeal  of  the 
act  were  received  from  38  counties  out  of  51  and  only  a 
hard  struggle  saved  the  bill.^^ 

A  Workingmen's  Committee  of  Philadelphia  in  1829 
drew  a  model  outline  for  a  system  of  free  education  that 
would  be  a  credit  to  experienced  educators.^"  In  all  the 
working  class  journals  of  that  time  and  for  many  years 
after  free  education  and  the  public  school  are  prominent 
demands.  The  opposition  to  them  read  like  the  anti- 
Socialist  arguments  of  today.  The  National  Gazette,  of 
Philadelphia,  in  a  number  of  editorials  in  1830,  ridiculed 


28DOC.   Hist.  Vol.   V,   p.   85. 

2aMcMaster,  "History,"  Vol.  V.  pp.  361-2;  Vol.  VII,  pp.  160-1. 

soDoc.   Hist.  Vol.   V,  pp.   94-107. 


208  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

the  public  school  as  an  impractical  dream  and  as  class  leg- 
islation. This  paper  regarded  it  as  "incompatible  with  the 
very  organization  and  being  of  civil  society."  It  affirms 
that  the  public  school  would  place  a  premium  on  idleness. 
"A  scheme  of  universal  equal  education  .  .  .  could 
not  be  used  with  any  degree  of  equality  of  profit,  unless 
the  dispositions  and  circumstances  of  parents  and  children 
were  nearly  the  same ;  to  accomplish  which  phenomenon, 
in  a  nation  of  many  millions,  engaged  in  a  great  variety  of 
pursuits,  would  be  beyond  human  power.""  Thus  spoke 
the  "educated"  classes  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  public  school  as  we  know  it  came  in  time 
and  it  is  only  in  recent  years  that  historians  concede  that 
it  is  a  monument  to  the  genius  and  struggles  of  the  work- 
ers during  the  first  half-century  of  the  republic. 

By  1825  the  development  of  industry  called  into  exist- 
ence a  mass  of  trades  unknown  to  the  colonial  period. 
Mill  hands,  mechanics,  engineers,  printers,  increased  with 
the  economic  changes  so  that  a  definite  class  of  wage  work- 
ers, marked  by  feelings,  interests,  habits  and  life  that  are 
typical  of  capitalist  production,  was  forming.  This  was 
also  the  formative  period  of  working  class  organizations 
and  labor  unions  were  organized  in  many  of  the  larger 
cities.^-  The  workers  at  this  period  were  fortunate  to  re- 
ceive 75c  for  12  hours'  work.  Many  were  glad  to  work 
for  "37c  and  even  for  25c  a  day  in  winter  who  in  spring 
and  summer  could  earn  62 J/ c  or  perhaps  87^ c  by  toiling 
14  hours."  These  wages  drove  children  to  beg  or  steal ; 
girls  crowded  houses  of  shame  to  such  an  extent  that  such 
houses  were  pulled  down  in  a  number  of  cities.^^     In  the 

31D0C.  Hist.  Vol.  V,  pp.  107-112. 
.•i2McMaster,   "History,"   Vol.  V,  pp.  84-8.5. 
33lbid,   pp.    121-2. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  209 

states  bordering  the  Ohio  wages  were  higher  owing  to  the 
scarcity  of  population.^* 

The  old  grievances  persisted  in  the  centers  of  popula- 
tion. In  1827  the  Prison  Discipline  Society  at  Boston 
mentions  one  lunatic  incarcerated  in  a  cell  for  nine  years 
with  a  wreath  of  rags  around  his  body.  Filthy  straw  was 
his  bed  while  bench  and  chair  were  unknown.  Lunatics 
were  neglected,  caged  in  small,  dark  cells,  while  one  stuffed 
cracks  with  hay  to  keep  out  the  cold.  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  Baltimore,  Washington  and  other  cities  presented 
similar  conditions  and  were  often  described  as  places  of 
filth,  vice  and  immorality. 

Thirty  years  of  the  new  century  passed  before  any 
modification  of  the  penal  codes  in  the  states  took  place. 
Cropping  the  ears,  the  use  of  branding  irons,  lashing  of- 
fenders, exposure  in  the  stocks  and  imprisonment  for  debt 
were  only  slightly  modified.  By  1833  it  was  estimated  that 
75,000  debtors  were  jailed  each  year;  10,000  were  in  New 
York;  7,000  in  Pennsylvania,  and  3,000  each  in  Massachu- 
setts and  Maryland.  Thirty-two  prisons  in  1830  report 
2,841  debtors  imprisoned  for  sums  less  than  $20.^^ 

It  is  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  opening  years  of  the 
century  in  tracing  other  phases  of  the  period  of  struggle. 
Attempts  to  organize  and  improve  the  conditions  under 
which  the  workers  had  labored  for  centuries  provoked  re- 
taliation from  the  master  employers.  The  first  struggle 
of  the  working  class  was  to  win  the  right  to  struggle — the 
right  to  organize  unmolested  and  acquire  by  their  own 
efforts  some  measure  of  freedom  which  the  Revolution 
denied  them. 


34Hulme's  "Journal,"  Ear.  West.  Trav.  Vol.  X,  p.  75. 
35McMaster,   "History,"  Vol.   VI,  pp.  97-99. 

14 


210  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

The  iirst  section  of  the  labor  army  to  feel  the  blows 
of  the  capitalist  "votaries  of  freedom"  was  the  sailors  in 
New  York,  in  1802.  At  this  period  the  hours  of  labor 
were  generally  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  At  Albany  the 
wages  were  forty  cents  per  day  and  in  Pennsylvania  six 
dollars  per  month  in  summer  and  five  in  winter.  The 
average  wages  were  about  $65  per  year,  including  board. 
Out  of  this  sum  the  workers  were  expected  to  feed  and 
clothe  their  families.  The  sailors  at  New  York  who  were 
receiving  $10  per  month  struck  for  fourteen.  They 
marched  through  the  city  persuading  others  to  join  them, 
when  the  constables  were  sent  in  pursuit,  broke  the  strike, 
and  jailed  the  leader.^^  So  ended  the  first  strike  in 
America. 

The  next  struggle  was  at  Philadelphia,  in  1806,  where 
the  cordwainers  were  indicted  for  conspiracy  for  attempt- 
ing to  raise  their  wages.  It  was  the  first  of  many  trials  of 
this  kind  extending  over  a  period  of  forty  years,  and  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  prosecutions  were  usually  based 
on  the  common  law  of  England  zvhich  included  the  bloody 
legislation  against  the  disinherited  mentioned  in  our  first 
chapter. 

The  cordwainers  were  boot  and  shoemakers  and  the 
evidence  brought  out  in  the  trial  showed  they  had  organ- 
ized to  protect  themselves  against  the  master  employers 
who  had  organized  to  advance  their  common  interests. 
Organizations  of  the  masters,  however,  were  never  indicted 
for  conspiracy.  In  this  first  conspiracy  case  the  jury  was 
composed  almost  entirely  of  small  business  men  and  shop- 
keepers as  follows:  three  grocers,  two  innkeepers,  a  mer- 
chant, a  tobacconist,  a  tavern-keeper,  a  hatter,  a  bottler,  a 


seMcMaster,    "History,"  Vol.  II,   pp.   617-18. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  211 

watchmaker  and  a  "taylor."  A  shoemaker  was  drawn  as 
one  of  the  jurors  and  rejected  because  of  his  occupation. 
The  strikers  were  charged  with  unlawfully  assembling  to 
"unjustly  and  corruptly  conspire,  combine,  confederate  and 
agree  together  that  none  of  them,  the  said  conspirators, 
would  work  for  any  master  .  .  .  who 
would  employ  any  artificer,  workman  or  journeyman 
.  who  should  thereafter  infringe  or  break"  the 
unlawful  rules  and  orders  of  the  boot  and  shoemakers. 

The  most  important  testimony  presented  by  the  prose- 
cution was  that  given  by  a  member  who  secretly  scabbed 
on  the  union  while  serving  on  the  strike  committee.  Dur- 
ing the  progress  of  his  testimony  a  disturbance  is  heard 
in  the  court  room.  A  striker  is  brought  forward  and  fined 
ten  dollars  for  contempt  of  court.  He  had  said  "A  scab 
is  shelter  for  lice."  The  offender  pays  the  fine  and  "jus- 
tice" is  appeased. 

A  master  employer  is  called  to  the  witness  stand. 
"Have  the  masters  a  society?"  he  is  asked.  Not  at  all. 
".  .  .  they  may  sometimes  meet  together,  but  they 
keep  no  accounts  of  their  proceedings,  they  may  meet  as 
people  meet  before  an  election,  to  consult  on  the  affairs  of 
the  moment,  but  nothing  regular."  Is  there  anything  more 
innocent  than  this?  Nothing  more  harmless.  Their  coun- 
sel argue  that  the  masters  are  prompted  by  patriotic  mo- 
tives and  regard  for  the  public  weal  in  prosecuting  this 
unlawful  conspiracy.  The  "public"  sits  in  the  jury  box  as 
"impartial"  judges  of  the  evidence. 

Counsel  for  the  defense  riddles  the  patriotic  claims  of 
the  prosecution.  "We  are  told  that  this  prosecution  is 
brought  forward  from  public  motives,"  but  "when  you 
see  a  formidable  band  of  masters  attending  on  the  trial  of 


212  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

this  cause;  .  .  .  and  when  you  see  further,  that  it  is 
not  taken  up  by  any  of  their  customers,  it  will  require 
strong  arguments  to  convince  you  it  is  done  out  of  pure 
patriotic  motives."  He  goes  to  the  heart  of  the  matter. 
"It  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  this,"  he  exclaims,  "wheth- 
er the  wealthy  master  shoemakers  .  .  .  shall  charge 
you  and  me  what  price  they  please  for  our  boots  and  shoes, 
and  at  the  same  time  have  the  privilege  of  fixing  the  wages 
of  the  poor  journeymen  they  happen  to  employ."  This 
sounds  like  a  counter-charge  of  conspiracy,  but  its  logic 
does  not  appeal  to  the  "public."  It  is  decidedly  "unrea- 
sonable" and  the  real  conspirators  are  the  men  who  toil. 
The  verdict  reads:  "We  find  the  defendants  guilty  of  a 
combination  to  raise  their  wages."  They  are  fined  eight 
dollars  each  with  costs  of  the  suit  and  are  committed  till 
paid.^^  The  convicted  men  opened  a  boot  and  shoe  ware- 
house appealing  to  "public  liberality  to  save  themselves 
and  families  from  abject  poverty. "^^ 

In  short,  the  Revolution  had  simply  bequeathed  to  the 
workers,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
barbarous  conspiracy  code  of  England  enacted  a  century 
or  two  before!  And  these  prosecutions  for  conspiracy 
continued  in  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Massachusetts, 
Maryland,  and  other  states,  and  not  till  the  first  half  of  the 
century  had  passed  into  history  did  the  workers  establish 
the  labor  union  as  a  legal  institution  of  their  class.^**  What 
a  commentary  on  the  pretensions  and  glittering  promises 
of  the  leading  men  of  the  Revolution! 


37See  "A  Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial  Society," 
Vol.  Ill,  for  a  stenographic  report  of  the  trial. 

ssMcMaster,  "Acquisition  of  the  Political,  Social  and  Industrial 
Rights  of  Man  in  America,"  p.  58. 

30See  "Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial  Society,"  Vols, 
ni,  IV  and  Supplement  to  Vol.  IV  for  proceedings  of  numerous  con- 
spiracy trials  from   1806  to  1842. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  2I3 

At  least  twenty- four  organizations  of  workingmen 
were  organized  from  1800  to  1810,  including  masons, 
bricklayers,  shipwrights,  printers,  cordwainers  and  oth- 
ers.*" These  steadily  increased  in  spite  of  prosecutions  for 
conspiracy  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  century  had  hardly 
passed  until  the  workers  were  planning  to  take  political 
action  to  abolish  the  grievances  already  mentioned.  The 
federal  and  state  governments  were  carefully  nursing  man- 
ufactures with  tariffs,  bounties,  subsidies,  land  grants  and 
other  forms  of  legislation.  The  experiment  of  Samuel 
Slater  in  Rhode  Island  with  machinery  and  child  labor  was 
soon  followed  in  other  states.  The  period  between  1815 
and  1830  witnessed  a  general  employment  of  women  and 
children  in  the  factories  and  Hamilton's  wish  to  exploit 
them  was  realized. 

By  1 83 1  some  of  the  factories  became  torture  cham- 
bers similar  to  those  that  gave  British  capitalists  their 
blood-stained  fortunes  some  decades  before.  ''Women  and 
children  in  the  factories  .  .  ."  says  one  writer, 
"were  frequently  beaten  with  cowhides  and  otherwise  mal- 
treated. An  instance  was  shown  of  a  deaf  and  dumb  boy 
receiving  a  hundred  lashes  from  his  neck  to  his  feet;  and 
another  of  the  breaking  of  the  leg  of  an  eleven-year-old 
girl  by  a  club  thrown  at  her  by  an  employer."*^ 

Massachusetts  "democracy,"  with  its  old  trade-mark, 
also  appears  with  the  rise  of  the  factory  system.  Corpora- 
tion boarding  houses  and  corporation  churches  became  ad- 
juncts to  the  factories  and  employes  could  only  get  work 
by  signing  contracts  that  rigidly  bound  them  to  the  sweat- 
ers of  labor.  The  Lowell  Manufacturing  Company's  rules, 
1 830- 1 840,  provided  that  all  employes  must  board  at  the 


4oMcMaster,   "History,"  Vol.  HI,  p.   511. 

4iW.  J.  Ghent,  in  "The  Forum,"  August,  1901. 


214  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

company  house  and  observe  its  minute  regulations;  all 
must  go  to  church  and  must  work  twelve  months  unless 
two  weeks'  notice  of  intention  to  quit  is  given.  Other 
detail  regulations  are  considered  part  of  the  contract. 

During  the  same  period  the  Cocheco  Manufacturing 
Company,  at  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  has  contracts  with  its 
'"hands"  by  which  the  latter  agree  not  to  join  any  labor 
organization  and  if  they  do  they  forfeit  the  wages  due 
them ;  they  agree  to  accept  such  wages  "as  the  company 
may  see  fit  to  pay";  they  are  subject  to  fines;  two  cents 
per  week  are  deducted  for  a  sick  fund;  they  agree  not  to 
leave  the  employ  of  the  company  without  giving  two  weeks' 
notice,  and  if  they  do  they  forfeit  t\yo  weeks'  pay,  and  if 
discharged  they  are  not  entitled  to  their  wages  until  two 
weeks  after  discharge*-  The  employes  of  these  factories 
were  nearly  all  girls.  Corporation  paternalism  became 
rampant.  The  girls  not  only  slept  in  company  houses,  but 
patronized  company  stores.  Some  corporations  maintained 
churches,  paid  the  preacher's  salary,  collected  pew  rents 
from  the  operatives,  and  held  out  fixed  sums  from  their 
wages  for  the  welfare  of  their  souls!  Six  and  eight  girls 
frequently  occupied  the  same  bed  chamber  and  the  hours 
of  labor  varied  from  twelve  in  summer  to  fourteen  in 
winter.*^ 

All  these  grievances  required  political  action  to  abolish 
them  and  by  1829  the  Workingmen's  party  of  New  York 
was  organized  and  by  the  following  year  it  was  widespread 
throughout  the  state.  Robert  Dale  Owen  and  Frances 
Wright,  or  "Fanny"  Wright  as  she  was  popularly  known, 
both  took  up  the  cause  of  the  workers.    Owen  had  already 


42Abbott,  "Women  in  Industry,"  Appendices  II  and  III. 
43lbid,  Chap.  Vn. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  215 

attacked  the  capitalist  order  of  things,  including  in  his  in- 
dictment religion  and  marriage  resting  on  a  property  basis. 
A  series  of  debates  between  Owen  and  Alexander  Camp- 
bell in  Cincinnati,  in  April,  1829,  had  made  the  former's 
views  widely  known.**  This  gave  the  opposition  its  oppor- 
tunity. The  press  that  yawped  the  praises  of  the  dominant 
class  now  served  the  latter  well.  The  new  party  became 
the  'Tnfidel  Ticket";  the  "rights  of  property,  religion  and 
order"  were  in  danger;  the  "mob"  threatened  the  founda- 
tions of  society.  In  short,  it  was  a  rehash  of  the  panic- 
stricken  cry  of  the  plunderers  during  Bacon's  Rebellion, 
in  1676,  Shays'  Rebellion  following  the  Revolution,  and  the 
same  is  heard  today,  with  some  variations,  hurled  against 
the  modern  Socialist  movement.  The  plunderer  is  always 
the  first  to  hide  behind  religion,  morality  and  property 
when  his  victims  rise  to  redress  past  and  present  wrongs. 
The  polls,  by  law,  were  open  for  three  days  and  the 
result  of  the  first  day's  poll  indicated  a  triumph  for  the 
ticket.  The  forces  of  "law,  order  and  religion"  rallied, 
following  denunciations  by  the  press,  and  only  one  candi- 
date of  the  workers  was  elected  and  the  press  urged  the 
legislature  to  unseat  him.  Some  of  the  unions  in  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York  were  intimidated  by  the  cry  against 
Fanny  Wright  and  repudiated  her  doctrines  and  those  of 
Owen.*^ 

The  platform  of  these  workingmen  shows  that  they 
understood  the  character  of  their  wrongs  and  their  his- 
torical origin.  They  declare  capitalist  society  to  be  "con- 
structed radically  wrong"  and  point  out  that  thousands 
are  in  "deep  distress  and  poverty,  dependent  upon  a  few 


44"The  Evidences  of  Christianity;  A  Debate,"  Cincinnati,  1852. 
45McMaster,  "History,"  Vol.  V,  pp.  102-3;  Doc.  Hist.  Amer.  Indus. 
Soc,  Vol.  V,  pp.  141-5. 


2l6  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

among  us  for  their  daily  subsistence"  who  are  made  "enor- 
mously rich."  A  "civil  revolution"  at  the  ballot  box  is 
urged  until  some  degree  of  equality  is  obtained.  Equal 
access  to  the  soil  is  demanded;  abolition  of  imprisonment 
for  debt;  a  single  legislative  chamber;  repeal  of  class  legis- 
lation; the  taxation  of  church  property  and  the  property 
of  priests;  a  lien  law  and  other  demands.  They  close  by 
asserting  "that  past  experience  teaches  that  we  have  noth- 
ing to  hope  from  the  aristocratic  orders  of  society;  and 
that  our  only  course  to  pursue  is  to  send  men  of  our  own 
description,  if  we  can,  to  the  legislature  at  Albany."*® 

Some  forty  or  fifty  labor  papers  came  into  existence 
demanding  economic,  social  and  political  changes  in  the 
established  regime.*^  These  papers  were  on  the  whole 
more  advanced  and  aggressive  than  the  pitiful,  conserva- 
tive, apologizing,  labor  press  of  today.  In  some  cities  the 
independent  political  action  of  the  workers  showed  sur- 
prising strength.  In  Albany,  New  York,  in  1830,  the  work- 
ers carried  four  wards  out  of  five  and  in  Troy  won  an- 
other victory.  In  Philadelphia  and  other  cities  they  also 
exercised  considerable  influence.  The  independent  move- 
ment finally  died  because  its  active  men  were  not  sufficient- 
ly clear  regarding  the  problems  that  faced  them  and  were 
the  prey  of  professional  politicians,  their  promises  and 
alliances.  Yet  the  workers  did  great  work  while  their 
descendants  of  today  in  the  labor  unions  are  allowing  the 
courts  to  strip  them  of  the  weapons  their  fathers  won. 
Courts  now  plunder  union  treasuries  and  the  private  purses 
of  members ;  they  have  outlawed  the  boycott  and  legalized 
the  blacklist;  prohibited  aid  by  sympathetic  unions;  jailed 


46DOC.   Hist.   Amer.  Indus.   Soc,  Vol.  V,  pp.   149-154. 
47See  Doc.  Hist.   Amer.   Indus.   Soc,  Vols.  V,  VI,  for  photographs 
and  lists  of  these  papers. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  21/ 

men  for  free  speech,  and  in  general,  declared  only  such 
unions  legal  that  contain  spineless,  unresisting  men,  who 
ask  nothing,  resent  nothing  and  get  nothing. 

As  early  as  1830  Frances  Wright  wrote  in  the  "Free 
Enquirer"  that  "What  distinguishes  the  present  from  every 
other  struggle  in  which  the  human  race  has  been  engaged, 
is,  that  the  present  is,  evidently,  openly  and  acknowledged- 
ly,  a  war  of  class,  and  that  this  war  is  universal."'*^  Sim- 
ilar declarations  of  the  class  struggle  may  be  found  in  the 
early  labor  journals  of  America  at  least  twenty  years  be- 
fore Marx  and  Engles  proclaimed  it  in  Europe  in  the 
"Communist  Manifesto"  of  1847.  The  political  successes 
of  the  working  class  parties  in  the  cities  and  the  election 
of  Ely  Moore  to  Congress  from  New  York  in  1834  brought 
concessions  from  the  dominant  parties.  Imprisonment  for 
debt  was  abolished  in  Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Indiana  and  Tennessee  in  1842  and  in  Missouri  the 
following  year,  while  a  bill  in  the  same  year  (1843)  was 
defeated  in  the  Michigan  Senate.^^  Many  states  were  also 
enacting  lien  laws  and  the  common  school,  open  to  rich 
and  poor  alike,  came  into  existence  in  spite  of  the  disasters 
predicted.  In  1840  President  Van  Buren  proclaimed  the 
ten-hour  day  on  public  works.  Two  years  later  the  revolt 
in  Rhode  Island  known  as  "Dorr's  Rebellion"  wrested  the 
suffrage  from  the  ruling  classes.  Conspiracy  trials  were 
becoming  less  frequent  and  most  of  the  popular  demands 
of  the  working  class  were  being  enacted  into  law.  The 
ruling  political  parties  were  silent  on  all  these  measures 
but  granted  them  through  fear  of  an  uprising  of  the  work- 
ers.    The  workingmen  were  getting  results  from  a  relent- 


48DOC.  Hist.,  Vol.  V,  p.  178. 
49McMaster,   "History,"  Vol.  VII,  p.   153. 


2l8  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

less  criticism  of  the  sham  "rights"  that  the  Revolution  had 
brought. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  ruling 
classes  felt  more  inclined  to  grant  many  concessions  in  pro- 
portion as  the  factory  system  extended  and  machinery  and 
immigration  gave  them  an  overstocked  labor  market  to 
draw  upon.  A  higher  standard  of  intelligence  is  required 
for  machine  production  than  for  unskilled  manual  labor 
and  this  fact  played  a  part  in  modifying  the  opposition  to 
the  public  school  and  other  demands  of  the  workers.  The 
question  of  slavery  was  also  becoming  more  acute  and  the 
more  shrewd  retainers  of  the  ruling  classes  in  the  Northern 
states  saw  an  advantage  in  extending  the  suffrage  to  the 
workers.  By  skillful  appeals  to,  and  patriotic  pleadings 
with,  a  ballot-armed  working  class,  this  additional  voting 
power  could  be  used  against  the  Southern  slavers  who  had 
largely  controlled  the  departments  of  government  since  its 
organization.  The  Southern  masters  shared  this  control 
with  the  Northern  masters  but  always  insisting  that  the 
slave-owning  interest  should  be  paramount. 

Yet  it  remains  a  fact  that  what  elements  of  popular 
rule,  culture,  economic  and  social  progress  that  have  come 
down  to  us  have  their  origin  in  the  struggles,  demands 
and  sacrifices  of  the  workingmen  during  the  first  half 
century  of  the  Republic.  The  passing  of  the  barbar- 
ous penal  codes,  of  conspiracy  trials,  and  other  ancient 
abuses  are  also  due  to  the  persistent  struggle  of  the  work- 
ers of  that  period.  The  records  of  that  struggle,  their  of- 
ficial journals,  the  proceedings  of  their  organizations  and 
fragmentary  accounts  in  contemporary  newspapers  form 
an  interesting  contrast  with  the  public  press  of  their  op- 
ponents.   A  study  of  the  latter  will  show  that  the  wealth, 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  2ig 

brains  and  culture  of  the  time  were  enlisted  in  behalf  of 
the  old  wrongs  which  were  finally  given  up  only  when  they 
could  no  longer  be  retained.  Yet  history  has  not  given 
credit  to  the  working  class  for  its  achievements  and  its 
struggles  are  hardly  known.^° 

The  period  of  struggle  is  still  with  the  laborers,  but  its 
objective  is  clearer  and  more  sharply  defined.  The  work- 
ers of  the  last  century  were  engaged  in  the  struggle  of 
clearing  society  of  the  colonial  privileges  that  the  nine- 
teenth century  inherited,  removing  the  obstacles  to  the  de- 
velopment of  unity  and  acquiring  weapons  that  would  en- 
able them  to  contest  for  a  better  life  as  civilized  human 
beings.  They  won  this  status  for  their  sons,  handing  to 
the  latter  the  public  school,  freedom  of  speech,  press  and 
assemblage;  manhood  sufifrage  and  the  right  to  organize 
as  a  class.  Our  task  is  to  see  that  these  weapons  are  not 
taken  away  and  to  use  them  to  the  best  advantage  of  the 
working  class. 

The  westward  movement  of  the  people  has  ended  on 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific  and  in  the  ice  floes  of  northern 
Alaska.  Capitalist  development  has  followed  the  workers 
to  the  Pacific  Coast  and  is  creeping  after  the  fugitives  who 
sought  escape  near  the  Arctic  Circle.  It  is  even  hunting 
out  the  mountain  folk  of  the  South,  slowly  destroying 
their  primitive  simplicity  as  the  railroad,  telegraph  and 
factory  system  invade  their  retreats.     It  is  also  transform- 


soMcMaster,  in  his  "Acquisition  of  the  Political,  Social  and  In- 
dustrial Rights  of  Man  in  America,"  gives  many  facts  regarding  this 
long  working  class  struggle,  yet  in  spite  of  the  conclusions  the  facts 
suggest,  he  continually  refers  to  the  modification  or  passing  of  each 
abuse  as  the  working  out  of  the  theory  of  the  "Rights  of  Man."  Had 
the  parties  of  the  ruling  classes  formulated  the  popular  demands  it 
is  doubtful  whether  the  historian  would  have  credited  them  to  the 
working  out  of  a  "theory"  that  developed  in  the  bourgeois  mind  of  a 
centurj^  before.  It  requires  some  courage  to  state  the  facts,  but  it  re- 
quires more  to  draw  conclusions  that  contradict  the  fables  and  fiction 
with  which  American  history  abounds. 


220  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ing  the  Southern  tier  of  states  into  an  image  of  the  sweat- 
shop North  and  the  bankruptcy  of  the  Southern  politicians 
is  beginning  to  penetrate  the  minds  of  Southern  workers. 
The  mountain  folk  and  stranded  "poor  whites"  are  coming 
under  the  control  of  the  monstrous  industrial  system  that 
enslaves  the  sellers  of  labor  power  and  from  this  develop- 
ment will  come  the  solidarity  and  class  unity  that  will  re- 
lease the  workers  from  class  rule  in  all  its  forms. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  221 


Chapter  X 

Conclusion 


From  the  beginning  of  the  RepubHc  there  was  a  fun- 
damental antagonism  between  capitaHst  North  and  planter 
South  that  was  to  terminate  in  one  of  the  bloodiest  wars 
of  the  century.  The  first  half-century  consisted  of  a  truce 
between  the  two,  though  it  was  an  armed  truce  in  the 
sense  that  each  was  alert  in  defense  of  its  interests.  The 
official  classes  of  the  North  would  not  tolerate  any  discus- 
sion of  the  "peculiar  institution"  of  the  South.  In  the 
words  of  Wendell  Phillips  the  North  was  "choked  with 
cotton  dust"  from  the  slave  plantations.  Every  traveler 
who  came  to  America  was  astounded  at  the  anomaly  of 
slavery  on  the  one  hand  and  the  boasting  of  "our  free  in- 
stitutions" on  the  other. 

In  the  early  forties  a  distinguished  Englishman  came 
to  our  shores  and  came  in  contact  with  the  "Great  Republic 
of  the  Western  World."  When  he  returned  home  he  wrote 
of  what  he  saw  and  instantly  the  journalistic  police  squirt- 
ed their  venom  on  the  great  man's  head.  The  great  heart 
of  Dickens  revolted  when  he  contemplated  "the  miserable 
aristocracy  spawned  of  a  false  republic"  and  the  public 
opinion  that  "knotted  the  lash,  heated  the  branding  iron, 
loaded  the  rifle,  and  shielded  the  murderer"  of  the  slave. 
The  vulgar  brawlers  in  Congress,  agents  of  planter  or  capi- 
talist, filled  him  with  disgust.  Congress  had  "sat  calmly 
by,  and  heard  a  man,  one  of  themselves,  with  oaths  which 


222  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

beggars  in  their  drink  reject,  threaten  to  cut  another's 
throat  from  ear  to  ear."  And  what  of  the  Inalienable 
Rights  of  Man?  Why,  "there  are  many  kinds  of  hunters 
engaged  in  the  Pursuit  of  Happiness,  and  they  go  various- 
ly armed.  It  is  the  Inalienable  Right  of  some  among  tjjem 
to  take  the  field  after  their  happiness  equipped  with  cap 
and  cartwhip,  stocks  and  iron  collar,  and  to  shout  their 
view  halloa!  (always  in  praise  of  Liberty)  to  the  music  of 
clanking  chains  and  bloody  stripes."' 

And  what  of  the  press  of  that  day?  It  is  a  "monster 
of  depravity;  when  any  private  excellence  is  safe  from  its 
attacks;  when  .  .  .  any  tie  of  social  decency  and 
honor  is  held  in  the  least  regard;  when  any  man  in  that 
Free  Country  has  freedom  of  opinion,  and  presumes  to 
speak  for  himself,  .  .  .  without  humble  reference  to 
a  censorship  which,  for  its  rampant  ignorance  and  base  dis- 
honesty he  utterly  loathes  and  despises  in  his  heart;  when 
those  who  most  acutely  feel  its  infamy,  .  .  .  dare 
to  set  their  heels  upon,  and  crush  it  openly,  in  the  sight 
of  all  men ;  then  I  will  believe  .  .  .  men  are  return- 
ing to  their  manly  senses.  But  while  that  press  has  its  evil 
eye  in  every  house,  and  its  black  hand  in  every  appoint- 
ment in  the  state,  .  .  .  while,  with  ribald  slander  for 
its  only  stock  in  trade,  it  is  the  standard  literature  of  an 
enormous  class,  ...  so  long  must  the  evil  it  works 
be  plainly  visible  in  the  Republic"^ 

Dickens  did  not  "understand  the  genius  of  American 
institutions"  and  to  this  day  many  exploiters  find  it  impos- 
sible to  forgive  the  great  English  author  for  the  lashing  he 
gave  the  ruling  classes  seventy  years  ago. 

The  slavery  question  swallowed  up  every  other  ques- 


iDickens,  "American  Notes." 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  223 

tion  as  the  crucial  hour  of  final  struggle  approached.  In 
Congress  nearly  every  debate  brought  forth  the  antagon- 
ism and  the  representatives  of  the  slavers  were  by  no 
means  at  a  disadvantage  when  contrasting  the  condition  of 
the  chattel  with  the  wage  slave.  Senator  J.  H.  Hammond 
of  South  Carolina,  in  the  United  States  Senate,  March  4, 
1858,  said: 

"The  Senator  from  New  York  said  yesterday  that  the 
whole  world  had  abolished  slavery.  Ay,  the  name,  but 
not  the  thing,  all  the  powers  of  the  earth  cannot  abolish  it. 
God  only  can  do  it  when  he  repeals  the  fiat,  'the  poor  ye 
always  have  with  you';  for  the  man  who  lives  by  daily 
labor,  and  scarcely  lives  at  that,  and  who  has  to  put  out 
his  labor  in  the  market  and  take  the  best  he  can  get  for  it ; 
in  short,  your  whole  hireling  class  of  manual  laborers  and 
'operatives,'  as  you  call  them,  are  essentially  slaves.  The 
difference  between  us  is,  that  our  slaves  are  hired  for  life, 
and  well  compensated;  there  is  no  starvation,  no  begging, 
no  want  of  employment  among  our  people,  and  not  too 
much  employment  either.  Yours  are  hired  by  the  day,  not 
cared  for,  and  scantily  compensated.  .  .  .  Yours 
are  white,  of  your  own  race ;  you  are  brothers  of  one  blood. 
They  are  your  equals  in  natural  endowment  of  intellect, 
and  they  feel  galled  by  their  degradation.  ...  If  they 
knew  the  tremendous  secret,  that  the  ballot-box  is  stronger 
than  'an  army  with  banners,'  and  could  combine,  where 
would  you  be?  Your  society  would  be  reconstructed,  your 
government  overthrown,  your  property  divided."" 

Down  to  the  Civil  War  the  exploiters  of  blacks  con- 
trolled nearly  every  President  and  Congress,  but  the  North- 
ern  masters   gathered   strength  with   the   development   of 


2Quoted  by  Arthur  W.   Calhoun  in  "The  Florida  Beacon,"  Nov.  3, 
1911. 


224  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

machinery  and  the  factory  system  and  the  extension  of 
both  over  a  larger  area.  The  Civil  War  swept  the  slave 
system  into  oblivion  and  the  Northern  capitalist  had  a  free 
field  to  the  Gulf  for  sweating  wage  labor,  "While  the  war 
was  waged  for  political  purposes,  ...  it  was  in 
reality  a  great  labor  movement — not  so  intended,  but  so  in 
result;  for  divested  of  all  political  significance,  . 
it  was  a  war  of  economic  forces,  .  .  .  for  the  South 
had  existed  under  a  form  of  labor  entirely  antagonistic  to 
that  existing  at  the  North."^ 

The  rise  of  the  Republican  party  with  the  issue  of 
slavery  was  soon  followed  by  some  of  the  biggest  steals 
and  "jobs."  Many  of  our  millionaires  secured  their  "start" 
by  swindling  contracts  in  arms,  tents,  rations,  and  sup- 
plies, while  a  whole  brood  of  financial  kings  developed  in 
a  short  time.  Having  "freed  the  negro"  a  group  of  these 
saviours  organized  the  "Freedman's  Bank"  and  after  col- 
lecting the  pennies  of  the  blacks  it  "failed,"  owing  them  over 
$3,000,000.  A  committee  of  Congress  reported  that  the 
books  showed  a  settled  purpose  to  confuse  the  accounts  so 
as  to  make  them  unintelligible.  They  were  mutilated,  some 
leaves  were  cut  out,  false  entries  were  made  and  some 
leaves  pasted  firmly  together.* 

The  Southern  states  had  been  ravaged  by  sword  and 
fire  and  its  civilization  practically  destroyed.  The  over- 
whelming mass  of  the  people  were  reduced  to  beggary. 
One  great  family  was  so  dispersed  and  reduced  to  poverty 
that  only  one  remained  to  "peddle  tea  by  the  pound  and 
molasses  by  the  quart,  on  a  corner  of  the  old  homestead, 
to  the  former  slaves  of  the  family."^ 


3Wright,  "Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States,"  p.  152. 
4Fleming,    "Docume-ntary   History    of   Reconstruction,"    Vol.   I,   pp. 
389-392,  passim. 
5lbid,  p.   17. 


TPIE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  225 

Despite  the  frightful  economic  conditions  the  recon- 
struction governments  piled  up  enormous  debts.  The  South 
Carolina  government,  for  example,  cost  $1,326,589  for  eight 
years,  while  the  total  cost  for  the  78  years  previous  was 
only  $609,000.  The  Republican  "statesmen"  established  a 
bar  adjoining  the  Senate  and  drank  the  choicest  liquors  at 
the  expense  of  the  wretched  population.  They  charged 
everything  in  the  way  of  personal  enjoyment  to  the  state, 
and  in  the  items  were  most  anything  from  stoves  and 
buckets  to  saws  and  coffee-mills.*^ 

While  the  negro  was  being  "freed"  these  statesmen 
went  back  to  the  indentured  and  vagrancy  codes  of  the  col- 
onies for  laws  fixing  the  status  of  the  blacks.  They  were 
taken  up  as  runaways,  rogues,  or  vagabonds  and  fined  or 
bound  out  to  masters.  The  South  Carolina  code  regulated 
the  details  of  the  servant's  life  by  fixing  the  hours  of  labor 
for  outdoor  service  from  sunrise  to  sunset;  outlined  the  la- 
bor to  be  performed  from  the  time  of  rising  until  the  serv- 
ant retired  at  night;  gave  power  to  the  master  to  deduct 
fines  from  the  wages  of  disobedient  servants,  and  stipulated 
the  form  of  contract  between  masters  and  servants.'^ 

In  the  meantime  the  increasing  consciousness  of  class 
interests  displayed  by  the  workers  in  the  North  was  almost 
blotted  out  in  the  slavery  issue  and  it  required  another  gen- 
eration after  the  Civil  War  before  it  could  be  revived.  The 
panic  of  1857  also  gave  the  labor  organizations  a  blow  and 
the  war  following  a  few  years  later  gave  no  opportunity 
for  organization  or  agitation.  The  approach  of  war  found 
the  unions  opposed  to  it.  They  felt  that  division  along  sec- 
tional lines  delayed  the  coming  of  the  solidarity  of  all  work- 


elbid,  Vol.  IT,  pp.  60-69,  passim. 
7lbid,  Vol.  I.  pp.  283-310. 

15 


226  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ers  North  and  South.  The  workers  were  finally  drawn 
into  the  war  and  their  activity  was  practically  suspended 
during  hostilities.  One  union  in  Philadelphia  adjourned 
and  enlisted  "until  either  the  union  is  safe  or  we  are 
whipped."^  Not  until  June,  1863,  was  there  a  revival  of 
the  labor  press.  In  that  month  Jonathan  C.  Fincher  began 
the  publication  of  "Fincher's  Trade's  Review"  at  Philadel- 
phia, and  within  a  few  years  many  local  papers  were  being- 
published.  Ira  Steward,  a  Boston  machinist,  began  his  agi- 
tation for  the  eight-hour  day  at  this  period,  and  in  1866  the 
National  Labor  Union  placed  this  demand  at  the  head  of 
its  program.  Wherever  unions  held  public  meetings  they 
were  denounced  by  the  press  and  their  proceedings  ridi- 
culed and  distorted.  The  favorite  epithets  of  the  editorial 
writers  were  "Communists,"  "Socialists,"  "Molly  Ma- 
guires,"  "blood-and-thunder  spouters,"  etc.  In  short,  the 
unions  still  had  the  task  of  battering  down  the  prejudices 
fostered  by  a  brood  of  journalists  whose  views  found  ap- 
proval in  the  official  world  of  capital.^ 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  trace  the  further  evolution  of 
the  workers'  struggles  through  the  Knights  of  Labor  and 
the  eight-hour  movement  that  resulted  in  the  judicial  lynch- 
ing in  1886;  nor  the  decline  of  the  Knights  and  the  rise  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  as  they  are  more  famil- 
iar to  the  reader  and  the  limits  of  this  chapter  will  not  per- 
mit it.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  many  of  the  privileges 
won  by  the  early  labor  organizations  are  being  attacked  by 
the  ruling  class  and  its  agents  who  would  restore  the  old 
regime  if  they  could. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  Ward  McAllister  asserted  that 
there  were  about  400  families  in  America  who  constituted 


sPowderly,   "Thirty  Years  of  Labor,"  pp.  46-57. 
9Ibid,  pp.   72-3. 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  227 

a  superior  class,  an  aristocracy.  His  figures  may  be  wrong, 
but  it  is  certain  that  since  the  Civil  War  the  controlling 
group  of  capitalists  who  own  the  powers  of  wealth  produc- 
tion have  diminished  in  numbers  while  their  power  over 
the  lives  of  the  workers  is  as  great  as  any  ruling  class  that 
ever  lived.  Ten  years  ago  James  J.  Hill  and  Charles  M. 
Schwab  officially  announced  that  the  big  capitalists  would 
not  only  rule  but  that  the  lesser  capitalists  must  be  regard- 
ed as  parasites  who  are  doomed  to  disappear.  Hill  predict- 
ed the  disappearance  of  the  "wasteful  system  which  would 
maintain  a  horde  of  middlemen."  He  refers  to  the  many 
officers  and  stockholders  of  small  railroads  whose  "useful- 
ness has  ceased."  Throughout  his  carefully  prepared  arti- 
cle he  announces  the  doom  of  the  small  capitalist  and  small 
business  and  the  absorption  of  the  latter  by  the  giant  indus- 
trial combines  of  today."  The  progress  of  concentration 
is  confirming  these  predictions,  but  whether  the  working 
class  will  permit  a  towering  business  empire  to  dominate 
their  lives  remains  to  be  seen. 

The  Civil  War  merged  the  negro  and  the  white  laborer 
into  the  one  class  of  wage  workers,  both  selling  and  having 
nothing  to  sell  but  their  muscles,  tissues  and  blood  in  order 
to  live.  The  capitalist  class  has  also  come  into  possession 
of  the  greatest  powers  of  wealth-production  the  world  has 
ever  known  and  these  have  been  organized  into  powerful 
combines  all  more  or  less  related  to  each  other  in  interest 
and  constituting  one  mighty  ruling  class  of  owners,  con- 
trolling government  and  press,  school  and  platform,  and 
shaping  all  institutions  to  accord  with  their  interests. 
Judges,  legislators,  presidents  and  governors  represent,  by 
class  or  family  relationship  or  association,  this  all-powerful 


loSee  a  remarkable  series  of  articles  in  the  "North  American  Re- 
view" for  May,  1901. 


228  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ruling  class  and  do  its  will.  Each  state  with  its  govern- 
ing powers  is  the  private  domain  of  the  controlling  com- 
bines within  its  borders,  while  the  naked  and  shameless  de- 
bauchery of  their  political  agents  are  revealed  in  every 
investigation  of  city  and  state. 

The  capitalist  system  of  production  has  at  the  same 
time  been  developing  the  crisis  that  must  sweep  it  out  of 
existence  like  other  historic  forms  of  class  rule.  The  rul- 
ing class  is  unable  to  prevent  the  breakdown  of  the  colossal 
powers  in  its  hands;  the  collapse  comes  every  ten  or  fif- 
teen years  in  the  form  of  an  industrial  crisis,  the  last  one 
always  more  terrible  in  the  suffering  and  ruin  it  brings 
than  the  one  preceding  it.  Millions  are  beggared  for  lack 
of  opportunity  to  place  bread  and  meat  on  their  tables. 
Though  millions  sufifer  for  lack  of  opportunity  to  operate 
the  machinery,  the  owners  stand  in  the  background  pos- 
sessing judge,  policeman  and  soldier  and  with  these  com- 
mand the  laborers,  "hands  off !"  Unable  to  manage  industry 
itself  the  capitalist  class  will  not  permit  the  laborers  to 
enter  the  factories  and  relieve  their  distress. 

The  opportunities  of  employment  are  not  owned  or 
managed  with  regard  to  human  welfare.  They  are  sim- 
ply agencies  for  the  enrichment  of  idle  capitalists,  most 
of  whom  never  saw  the  factories  they  own.  When  the 
workers  produce  more  than  the  owners  can  sell  or  the 
workers  buy,  the  plants  are  closed  and  society  becomes  a 
stockade;  the  workers  are  penned  within  sight  of  the  bil- 
lions they  produce;  within  reach  of  the  machinery  to  pro- 
duce billions  more,  and  yet  are  barred  from  both. 

Even  during  times  of  so-called  "prosperity"  capitalist 
society  is,  in  the  words  of  Professor  Ely,  "an  imperfect 
social  organism.     It  moves  forward,  creaking,  and  groan- 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  229 

ing  and  splashes  the  blood  of  its  victims  over  us  all.  Our 
food,  our  clothing,  our  shelter,  all  our  wealth,  is  covered 
with  stains  and  clots  of  blood."  The  upstart  parvenue 
rich,  whose  ancestors  stole  their  original  accumulations, 
draw  the  children  of  the  workers  within  their  factory  hells 
and  sweat  gold  from  their  tender,  helpless  little  bodies. 
Their  fathers  and  mothers  also  sell  their  labor  power  for 
a  pittance.  The  waking  hours  of  the  worker  are  devoted 
to  securing  food  for  his  family,  and  working  under  such 
conditions  that  often  deprive  him  of  the  bodily  vigor,  lei- 
sure and  comfort  of  the  cave-man  of  the  primitive  world. 
Millions  live  in  chronic  pauperism  and  slowly  rot  and  die 
because  of  lack  of  nourishment.  Protests  and  strikes  of 
laborers  are  met  with  clubs,  jails  and  injunctions,  or 
silenced  with  the  soldier's  bullet.  All  life,  all  progress,  all 
institutions,  are  held  and  shaped  to  serve  the  wishes  of  a 
class  that  is  no  more  necessary  or  useful  to  society  today 
than  the  idiot  who  rules  the  unhappy  people  of  Spain. 

This  is  the  civilization  that  four  centuries  of  progress 
and  achievement  in  America  has  given  us,  and  just  as  our 
review  of  the  past  century  has  shown  that  the  political 
parties  of  that  time  never  at  any  time  mentioned  the  real 
issues  that  concerned  the  workers,  so  the  dominant  parties 
today  have  no  message  for  them.  The  reason  for  this  is 
apparent.  These  parties,  past  and  present,  are  the  parties 
of  the  ruling  classes.  Their  appeals  are  based  on  "patri- 
otism," "morality,"  "the  flag,"  and  other  vapid  claptrap. 
They  are  incapable  of  understanding  that  "Love  and  busi- 
ness and  family  and  religion  and  art  and  patriotism  are 
nothing  but  shadows  of  words  when  a  man's  starving." 

They  are  bankrupt.  They  are  worse.  No  one  can 
say  worse  of  them  than  many  who  have  been  with  them. 


230  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

learned  of  their  foul  practices  and  witnessed  their  crimes. 
Every  election  they  participate  in  is  a  disgrace  to  the 
human  family.  Every  such  occasion  brings  them  into  close 
alliance  with  the  thug  and  the  pimp,  and  the  unfortunate, 
rotting  degenerates  clinging  to  the  lowest  layers  of  society. 
These  come  forth  from  their  holes  and  cellars  in  every 
American  city  and  are  "rounded  up"  with  funds  provided 
by  bankers,  merchants,  capitalists  and  other  "pillars  of 
society."  Thuggery,  "booze,"  and  boodle  are  a  necessary 
part  of  their  work.  S.  S.  McClure,  of  "McClure's  Maga- 
zine," says  that  in  American  cities  we  have  "government 
by  criminals."  Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey's  story^^  of  the 
criminals  ruling  Denver  and  Colorado — composing  both 
political  parties,  the  business  men,  bankers,  capitalists,  and 
even  some  clergymen — of  their  destruction  of  boys  and 
girls  and  other  infamies  that  almost  stagger  belief,  shows 
the  degradation  and  debauchery  of  capitalist  rule. 

This  is  a  natural  legacy  of  the  past.  From  the  history 
of  class  rule  in  America  nothing  better  could  be  expected. 
But  the  end  is  drawing  near  and  the  curtain  is  about  to 
rise  on  a  better  and  nobler  stage  of  history.  The  devel- 
opment of  the  factory  system  and  the  concentration  of 
industries  draw  large  masses  of  workers  into  workshops 
working  for  the  same  masters,  under  the  same  rules  and 
under  the  same  common  conditions  of  servitude.  The 
machine  enters  the  factory  and  under  their  very  eyes  ab- 
sorbs their  skill  and  throws  hosts  of  them  out  of  employ- 
ment. Out  of  their  common  servitude  comes  a  conscious- 
ness of  unity  and  fellowship  in  the  struggle  for  bread. 
This  solidarity  finds  its  first  expression  in  the  trades  union 
where  the  workers  unite  to  give  battle  to  those  who  live  on 


iiLindsey   and   CHiggins,    "The   Beast." 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  23 1 

their  sweat  and  blood.  The  workers  are  forced  to  unite 
or  go  down  in  defeat  as  a  servile,  cringing,  degraded  class. 
Pressure  from  above  molds  them  into  a  closer  unity  and 
class  consciousness  is  born  of  their  contact  with  each  other. 

However,  when  they  leave  the  factory  on  strike  they 
find  that  the  capitalist  has  summoned  the  judge  to  post  an 
injunction  on  the  factory  gates;  the  mayor  to  provide  him 
with  clubs;  the  governor  to  provide  him  with  bayonets 
and  the  president  to  give  him  Federal  soldiers.  All  these 
officials  obey  his  commands.  The  workers  have  united  in 
the  factory  and  divided  at  the  polls,  giving  their  ballots  to 
one  or  the  other  of  two  parties  controlled  by  the  owners  of 
the  factory.  The  party  in  turn  gives  its  owners  the  police 
and  military  powers  necessary  to  beat  the  insurgent  work- 
ers into  submission.  The  class  struggle,  ever  present  in 
capitalist  society,  is  revealed  in  all  its  brutality,  and  broken 
heads  and  weltering  bodies  attest  its  grim  reality.  Unity 
at  the  ballot  box  to  secure  possession  of  the  legislative, 
judicial,  police  and  military  powers  is  also  revealed  and 
independent  Socialist  politics  is  born. 

Socialism,  having  for  its  object  the  industrial  and  po- 
litical unity  of  workingmen,  will,  when  triumphant,  restore 
the  magnificent  resources  of  America  to  the  workers  from 
whom  they  were  stolen  in  the  first  place.  It  will  transfer 
to  the  people  all  the  mills,  mines,  factories,  railways,  and 
all  the  other  powers  of  wealth-production  and  distribution 
to  be  publicly  owned,  operated  and  managed  by  all  in  the 
interest  and  for  the  common  good  of  all.  Capitalist  own- 
ership for  capitalist  enrichment  will  be  replaced  by  com- 
mon ownership  in  behalf  of  the  useful  wealth  producers. 

The  machine  and  factory  system  are  both  the  social 
achievements  of  all  the  workers  of  the  past  and  present. 


232  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Each  generation  has  improved  the  wealth-productive  pow- 
ers of  their  time  and  passed  them  on  to  their  children  who 
performed  a  like  service  for  the  race.  These  powers  in- 
carnate the  blood  and  tears  and  genius  of  all  the  workers 
that  have  gone  before,  and  to  allow  a  few  idle  capitalists 
and  stock  gamblers  to  possess  them  and  juggle  with  the 
happiness  of  millions  is  a  crime  against  the  human  race. 

Class  ownership  must  give  way  to  the  next  Revolution, 
the  revolution  that  will  place  the  workers  in  possession  of 
the  governing  and  industrial  powers  of  today.  Co-opera- 
tive labor  in  the  factories  must  be  supplemented  with  co- 
operative ownership  and  control.  Capitalist  society  itself 
has  developed  the  framework  of  the  new  Socialist  society. 
We  do  not  have  to  build,  but  transform.  Co-operative 
social  production  is  displacing  individual  hand  methods  in 
all  fields  of  industry.  The  owners  are  simply  gamblers  on 
the  toil  of  the  workers.  Owning  sugar  stock  today  they 
trade  it  for  steel  tomorrow ;  for  railway  stock  the  next 
day,  and  for  other  stock  the  next,  and  so  on  without  end. 
They  never  know  the  plants  the  stocks  represent,  or  the 
process  of  producing  the  given  commodities  within  them. 
As  gamblers  or  idle  owners  sailing  the  seas  they  perform 
no  service  of  use  to  mankind.  They  must  go  the  way  of 
the  baron  of  the  crags  and  the  Roman  masters  when  they 
no  longer  serve  society  in  a  useful  capacity. 

The  response  the  workers  get  for  their  demand  is  the 
response  every  ruling  class  in  history  has  given  to  the 
demands  of  its  victims.  "You  will  overthrow  morality, 
break  up  the  family,  destroy  religion,"  and  all  the  other 
institutions  of  today.  Yet  the  capitalist  class  drags  all 
these  in  the  muck  and  mire  and  makes  a  wretched  botch 
of  everything  it  touches.     The  thinking  worker  laughs  at 


THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY  233 

these  pretenses  and  adds  to  the  number  of  those  who  pre- 
pare to  topple  over  the  vulgar  parvenues  and  the  servile 
parrots  who  sing  their  praises. 

The  modern  Socialist  can  well  stand  erect  knowing 
that  the  Socialist  movement  has  gathered  to  itself  the  schol- 
arship, learning,  science  and  philosophy  of  the  nineteenth 
and  twentieth  centuries.  In  no  political  gatherings  outside 
of  the  Socialist  movement  are  the  writings  of  the  great 
philosophers  and  scientists  discussed  and  appreciated.  This 
movement  represents  not  only  the  next  political,  social  and 
industrial  advance  of  mankind,  but  it  also  preserves  the 
culture  and  learning  of  our  time.  What  use  have  capi- 
talist parties  for  the  names  or  writings  of  Marx,  Engels, 
Huxley,  Darwin,  Tolstoy,  London,  Buckle,  Ibsen,  and  the 
host  of  others  that  have  enriched  the  literature  of  the 
world?  The  Socialist  movement  will  hand  this  rich  legacy 
on  to  the  people  of  the  future  while  its  enemies  will  only 
leave  the  memory  of  the  evil  they  have  done  and  merit  the 
contempt  of  mankind. 

The  final  fruition  of  the  workers'  struggles  in  Amer- 
ica is  not  hard  to  predict.  Blunder  as  we  may,  go  down 
in  deieat  as  often  as  we  will ;  betrayed  by  some,  deserted 
by  others,  and  our  advance  retarded  by  the  timid  and  fal- 
tering, the  hour  will  come  when  the  working  class  with  its 
new  ideals — the  greatest  known  in  history — will  stand  on 
the  summit  of  the  modern  world.  They  will  clear  the 
swamps  and  cesspools  of  society  that  remind  us  of  the 
past  and  place  the  governing  powers  in  the  hands  of  all. 
Possession  of  these  by  all  and  for  all  will  incarnate  in  all 
eur   institutions  the   fellowship   that  today  is   only   found 


234  THE    WORKERS    IN    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

in  its  ripest  form  among  the  long-suffering,  organized 
working  class.  They  will  transform  every  factory  into  a 
palace  of  art  and  every  workshop  into  a  studio  where 

''ALL  WILL  BE  JOY-SMITHS  AND  THEIR 
TASK  SHALL  BE  TO  BEAT  OUT  LAUGHTER 
FROM  THE  RINGING  ANVIL  OF  LIFE." 


I 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNT  ' 


